The biggest planet in the solar system Jupiter was possibly hit by an asteroid and the impact was captured by astronomer Ethan Chappel, who put out pictures of the event on Twitter. A small white spot on the left bottom of the planet, which was captured by the astronomer using his Celestron 8 telescope, before it faded away, showcases the possibility of a large asteroid crashing into it.
“Single frame and DeTeCt output image of the potential impact on #Jupiter,” Chappel Astro’s tweet of August 7 read. The event, however, remains to be confirmed by a second observer. The flash of light was observed in the Red Planet’s South Equatorial Belt (SEB).
In a separate tweet from the Twitter handle of his website Chappel Astro, the astronomer confirmed that the impact happened on August 7 at 4:07 UTC. Prior to this, among the most famous recorded impacts on Jupiter happened in 1994 when SL9 or Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which is said to be hotter than the Sun’s surface, hit the planet.
Astronomer Dr. Heidi B. Hammel, who led the team using the Hubble Space Telescope to view Shoemaker-Levy 9’s impact, also took to Twitter to congratulate Chappel on his discovery and wrote, “A bolide (meteor) and not likely to leave dark debris like SL9 did 25 years ago.”
Meanwhile, NASA has shared new images of Jupiter taken on June 27, 2019, by Hubble Space Telescope, which reveal Great Red Spot as well as more colourful bands in ice clouds. The rich, striking colours of cloud bands on top and bottom of the Great Red Spot stand out the most. The two bands are moving in opposite directions and a storm is rolling counterclockwise between them, as per NASA.