Hubble images Jupiter Impact site

[Crusader]

For those of you who might have missed it, it seems Jupiter was hit by an asteroid or comet on Sunday. An amateur astronomer, Anthony Wesley from Australia was the first to spot the dark mark on Jupiter while busy imaging Jupiter. He notified NASA and they confirmed that it was indeed an impact site.
Since then all eyes and telescopes have been pointed at Jupiter. They even cut the calibration and testing of Hubble short in order to image the site.

Image and article visible here

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken the sharpest visible-light picture yet of atmospheric debris from an object that collided with Jupiter on July 19. NASA scientists decided to interrupt the recently refurbished observatory's checkout and calibration to take the image of a new, expanding spot on the giant planet on July 23.

Discovered by Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley, the spot was created when a small comet or asteroid plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere and disintegrated. The only other time such a feature has been seen on Jupiter was 15 years ago after the collision of fragments from comet Shoemaker-Levy 9.

"Because we believe this magnitude of impact is rare, we are very fortunate to see it with Hubble," said Amy Simon-Miller of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Details seen in the Hubble view shows a lumpiness to the debris plume caused by turbulence in Jupiter's atmosphere."

The new Hubble images also confirm that a May servicing visit by space shuttle astronauts was a big success.

For those with telescopes - be sure to try and catch a glimpse of it. I just came back from observing it and despite bad seeing it's still remarkable and easy to spot.

 

[HvRooyen]

Excellent, thanks. Our son will love to see this.
H.

 

[medicnick83]

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeectic!

 

[Crusader]

For those interested in seeing it for themselves here's the times. The times are in UT and you should add 2 hours for South African time.

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2009 Jul 27 02:45 ( 216°) 12:41 ( 216°) 22:37 ( 216°)
2009 Jul 28 08:32 ( 216°) 18:28 ( 216°)
2009 Jul 29 04:23 ( 216°) 14:19 ( 216°)
2009 Jul 30 00:15 ( 216°) 10:10 ( 216°) 20:06 ( 216°)
2009 Jul 31 06:01 ( 216°) 15:57 ( 216°)
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My quick and dirty conversions of those viable for us:
28 Jul 0:37
28 Jul 20:28 (might be too low on horizon)
30 Jul 22:06

It's not known for how long it will be visible but estimates put it at a week or two.

 

[waynegohl]

Crusader is Jupiter not a gas giant and if so why has that hole not been covered up by the gas then?

if the Hubble can only see big things on the moon why are there no close ups of this black mark if its a few rugby size fields wide?

just curious.

 

[Nanfeishen]

Crusader is Jupiter not a gas giant and if so why has that hole not been covered up by the gas then?

if the Hubble can only see big things on the moon why are there no close ups of this black mark if its a few rugby size fields wide?

just curious.

Density and structure of the outer layer of Jupiter

I.E. think about dropping a dirty brick into a pond, you get a splash and some ripples, but after a short while the surface is flat again and no evidence of the bricks passage.
Drop a dirty brick into a bath of thick porridge, and the effects last far longer, the surface takes longer to recover, and you are left with the dirty mark of where the brick entered.

Well more or less, i'm no astrophysicist

 

[waynegohl]

ok cool thanks man i was just wondering.

 

[Crusader]

Density and structure of the outer layer of Jupiter

I.E. think about dropping a dirty brick into a pond, you get a splash and some ripples, but after a short while the surface is flat again and no evidence of the bricks passage.
Drop a dirty brick into a bath of thick porridge, and the effects last far longer, the surface takes longer to recover, and you are left with the dirty mark of where the brick entered.

Well more or less, i'm no astrophysicist

That's a very good explanation. Basically whatever the impacter was it has flung up debris from the lower layers of Jupiter's atmosphere and possibly from the impacter itself breaking apart. From what I've read the dark spot is largely due to ammonia gas.

The spot will disappear with time as the "debris" (lack of a better word) settles down and dissipates this will likely take a couple of weeks. It is already much more elongated and spread out than it was when first spotted.

if the Hubble can only see big things on the moon why are there no close ups of this black mark if its a few rugby size fields wide?

Actually the impacter is believed to have been the size of a couple of rugby fields. The dark spot is twice the length of the United States (which should make it around 9000km). The Moon is much closer to the Earth (0.002518 AU) than Jupiter is (4.083 AU) so even very large things will be reasonably small features on the images. Also keep in mind that Hubble is still busy with testing and calibration so the instruments aren't working to full capacity. This was something that happened out of the blue and they had to drop everything to image the impact site.