Last October , professional astronomers spotted a vivid flash on Jupiter . Something make the largest planet in the solar system , releasing the equivalent of two megatons of TNT worth of energy , corresponding to the Tunguska impact that rocked Siberia in 1908 . This was the most knock-down known shock Jupiter has received sincecomet Shoemaker - Levy 9smacked the planet in 1994 .
The paper is available on the scientific discipline paper repositoryArXiv(pronounced archive ) and it is accepted for issue in The Astrophysical Journal Letters .
For instance , the squad was able to estimate that the impactor had a mass of about 4.1 million kilograms ( ~9 million Pound ) , which would be like mosh a couple of place shuttles at really high speed in the wild atmosphere of the King of the Planets .
Based on the estimate of the quite a little , the fireball might have been some between 15 to 30 meters ( 50 to 100 foot ) across . Not that big in the grand scheme of thing , but race enough to heat up to 8,000 ° C ( 14,400 ° F ) . This is interesting because it provides perceptivity into the kind of body it might have been . compile datum on these erratic collisions far from Earth could help us prepare for when a comet or asteroid will come tumbling down on our head . render that we rest uncertain on the nose what happened at Tunguska .
The observation appeared to be ten multiplication bright than late unpaid observations of impacts . And it also let the researchers to estimate how often these kind of wallop are potential to happen on Jupiter . Turns out a quite a little more often than on Earth . Between 100 and 1,000 times more often , so roughly they ’d have a Tunguska - comparable event once a year .
The squad plans to establish a foresighted - terminal figure monitoring campaign of Jupiter with an upgraded rendering of their PONCOTS system .
" Since the original PONCOTS system is a epitome , it does not plump for a remote notice mode that is essential for long - term monitoring , " lead author Dr Ko Arimatsu order IFLScience . " The next generation PONCOTS organisation will support such mode and achieve detections of other impact flashes . "
[ H / T : New Scientist ]
