Leon Times

Huge fireball slams into Jupiter, impact caught on video

This is the second time the planet gets it the other one occurred back in 2008 or 2009.

Asteroid hits Jupiter, impact recorded. This image provided by Anthony Wesley shows an amateur astronomer’s view of Jupiter Thursday June 3, 2010. Wesley said he witnessed a bright flash, upper left, from an object hitting the Jovian surface. The discovery was confirmed by another amateur sky gazer in the Philippines.

A huge fireball has been spotted on Jupiter in yet another collision from space caught on camera and video by amateur astronomers.

The new Jupiter crash occurred on June 3 at 20:31 UT (4:31p.m. Eastern Time) and was spotted by sky watcher Anthony Wesley in Australia and fellow amateur astronomer Christopher Go in the Philippines.

Wesley’s photos show the Jupiter fireball blazing in the atmosphere of the gas giant planet. So far, no visible scar in the clouds has been reported from the event.

Wesley described the event as a “large fireball” on his website, where he posted the photos taken from Broken Hill, Australia.

This new impact on Jupiter comes less than a year after a spectacular crash on July 19, 2009, when what scientist now think was an asteroid about 1,600 feet (500 meters) wide slammed into the planet. That collision created a massive bruise the size of the Pacific Ocean. [Gallery: Jupiter gets smacked.]

It was Wesley, too, who first spotted the July 2009 collision. His observations kicked off an international observation campaign to study the impact site.

Astronomers initially suspected a comet in last year’s impact, but announced this week that a rogue asteroid was the most likely culprit.

And Jupiter has been smacked before.

In 1994, the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 broke into more than 20 pieces and pelted Jupiter repeatedly. At the time, astronomers estimated such impacts could occur on Jupiter every 50 to 250 years. So they were surprised by the July 2009 impact.

Absolutely incredible! Note that it took the Atlas? rocket 13 attempts before a successful launch. SpaceX got a perfect launch ON THE FIRST TRY! History in the making today as SpaceX Falcon 9 soars to lofty heights on its maiden voyage reaching orbit with the Dragon capsule. we can watch this launching on video that include fly’s and everything.

Elon Musk, you are the geek’s hero!
Other billionaires spend their money on the easy things – owning a football team, fancy yachts and villas in the south of France. Anyone with sufficient finances? can do those things – but you take the challenge and start your own space program! Now THAT is something I really take my hat off to.
Congratulations on Falcon 9 and all future flights!

the remaining question is: why do the flight controllers sound like the guys from the Big? Bang Theory?