Does anyone know how large this object was? Doesn’t seem to be mentioned anywhere.
Amateur astronomers spot new impact on Jupiter
41–48 of 48 posts
Re: Amateur astronomers spot new impact on Jupiter
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
What does one need to look at Jupiter, visible light or not? And how much would it cost to have a setup that I can feed some sky coordinates and enjoy the feed/s on a screen. Any useful software that also happens to be free and/or open source? I just realized I don't know anything about this fascinating stuff
There's lots of really good options available now at some very affordable prices. There's quite a few reflectors in the 6"-8" size that are very small and easy to set up. Because the planets are so much brighter, especially the moon, than deep sky objects, all of the tracking and image stacking software is not necessary to start. There are scopes now that come with a mobile app and a built in camera. Because I don't…
Probably the best starting scope is a plain Newtonian such as from Skywatcher. They're the cheapest way to get a good large aperture and therefore good resolving power, and you can do a lot with one. If you go enthusiast then it's worth looking at what the advantages of other telescope types are, but I'd advise playing with a Newtonian for a year or two before even thinking about that.
Celestron sell some incredible scopes at incredible prices. But I would be very wary of their lower-end stuff. There's a reason why "Don't buy a powerseeker" is a phrase repeated over and over again to people starting out in this hobby.
Re: Amateur astronomers spot new impact on Jupiter
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's sad it has to be this way. I have a telescope with a smaller telescope for tracking. I have the motorized equatorial mount. I have the gear to connect the mount and smaller scope with a camera to my laptop. I have the software to control them for precise tracking. I have the camera to attach to the main telescope. I have the stacking software. I don't have the luck of being free when the seeing is great, and hav…
> Edit: my "old man" plans are to buy some property well outside of light pollution. I've always wonder how feasible it was to do astronomy by boat? That way you can chase clear skies. And I'd suspect there is almost no light pollution out in the deep blue sea.
The problem is that there is twice as much atmosphere between you and space at sea level than if you in Denver, Colorado. That can mean more distortion as the light passes through more dust and more thermally different layers before it reaches you.
Re: Amateur astronomers spot new impact on Jupiter
#44The widely believed claim, repeated in the first paragraph— that the gas giants are “protecting inner solar system worlds” is not necessarily true. Though heavier planets are more likely to be hit they also serve to attract more matter into the region — some of which hits other planets. Some well regarded models show that it’s approximately break-even… the losses and the wins cancel each other out. And in some runs o…
Yes this makes more sense to me. Jupiter would only intervene with a small number of impacts. The rest of the time it’s gravity well would redirect matter from a far-off-course trajectory to one closer to Jupiter and maybe us too
Re: Amateur astronomers spot new impact on Jupiter
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Edit: my "old man" plans are to buy some property well outside of light pollution. I've always wonder how feasible it was to do astronomy by boat? That way you can chase clear skies. And I'd suspect there is almost no light pollution out in the deep blue sea.
The problem is that there is twice as much atmosphere between you and space at sea level than if you in Denver, Colorado. That can mean more distortion as the light passes through more dust and more thermally different layers before it reaches you.
That's a vast exaggeration. At Denver's altitude, 1608m, there's about 85% as much atmosphere as at sea level. To get down to 50% atmosphere, you'd need to climb to around 5500m which is higher than Mount Elbert.
Re: Amateur astronomers spot new impact on Jupiter
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, he’s saying one singular (small) telescope could be pointed at Jupiter at all times. Not every telescope everywhere at once.
The Search for Terrestrial Intelligence scores a positive signal. Adding one further factor to your list: there's all but certainly a direct correlation between major Jupiter strikes and Earth strikes. Refining estimates of the former will help in establishing values of the latter. Though existing known power-law relations of meteor(ite) impacts on Earth of size vs. time are fairly well established as well, I suppose…
>>No, he’s saying one singular (small) telescope could be pointed at Jupiter at all times.
> The Search for Terrestrial Intelligence scores a positive signal.
For a singular telescope to be viewing Jupiter, it would only be able to see one side of Jupiter. What happens if an object collides on the backside? Going to throw off your metrics that you seem to think is a worth while effort to investigate.
So I guess terrestrial intelligence didn't score much after all
Re: Amateur astronomers spot new impact on Jupiter
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Search for Terrestrial Intelligence scores a positive signal. Adding one further factor to your list: there's all but certainly a direct correlation between major Jupiter strikes and Earth strikes. Refining estimates of the former will help in establishing values of the latter. Though existing known power-law relations of meteor(ite) impacts on Earth of size vs. time are fairly well established as well, I suppose…
>>No, he’s saying one singular (small) telescope could be pointed at Jupiter at all times. > The Search for Terrestrial Intelligence scores a positive signal. For a singular telescope to be viewing Jupiter, it would only be able to see one side of Jupiter. What happens if an object collides on the backside? Going to throw off your metrics that you seem to think is a worth while effort to investigate. So I guess terre…
50% > 0.
Impact location is randomly distributed. Curiously enough, extrapolation from observations based on half the surface are should be reasonably possible, though some may find the maths involved challenging.
Jupiter's rotational period is ~10 hours. Atmospheric scars from sufficiently sizeable impacts will be visible on average within half that period. (See the Shoemaker-Levy instance for how farside impact atmospheric scars appear.)
Re: Amateur astronomers spot new impact on Jupiter
#48It seems fairly frequent that amateurs observe large impacts on Jupiter. Presumably they would be devastating impacts if they hit Earth. Is the reason we don't get them frequently on Earth because of the size difference (11X smaller than Jupiter) or we're somehow protected by location?
I once heard that Jupiter protects us because it’s so massive that it catches rocks that would otherwise come towards us. No idea if that’s true, but it makes for a nice story about the silent gassy protector.
Jupiter has a lot of magnetism and the baroque clockwork ballet of its moons in the solar wind and on its stormy poles never fail to sing their eternal opera. My grandfather, Hein Hvatum, thought this might be the case and happened to be the first to point a radio telescope at Jupiter and write a paper about it.