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Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Another flash on Jupiter


Amateur astronomers dotted a brief fracture have of light along the eastern limb of Jupiter. Now we must wait to see if the planet bears a scar from the impact site.

This is the perfect time to observe Jupiter. Shines brightly Queen planets in the night sky - That means clustering and a lot of eyes and cameras are turned on it every night since about midnight Until Dawn. HAS paid all this early in the morning of September 10, when two amateur astronomers have captured a spectacular goal brief lightning in the middle of Jupiter near icts eastern limb.


The first report from Dan Petersen cam of Racine, Wisconsin observing before dawn with a Meade LX200 12-inch and a binocular head. 400 × Working at he spotted a brilliant flash of a duration of 2 seconds to 11:35:30 Universal Time on Sept. 10 along the limb of Jupiter, just inside the southern edge of the dark equatorial belt north of the planet. Estimated He the brightness about magnitude 6 and situated at 12 ° latitude and 335 ° longitude in System I, although analysis of year the image by Sean Walker Sky & Telescope Gives values ​​closer + 0.5 ° and 340 °.

During the rainy remnants of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter in July 1994, the Hubble Space Telescope captured this double impact: a wide multi-ring fragment G Spot Caused by a small dark spot and fragment D.

"I thought the imagery of Jupiter this morning, I aim Decided to INSTEAD observes," Said Petersen in a message CloudyNights.com. "If I had the imagery I'm sure I would Have missed webcam Between Adapting and focus settings on each Stock avi [video clip]. "

Petersen's report Quickly Reached the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers and the British Astronomical Association, and there was a network of professional APÉNDICE. Everyone was hoping for a picture to confirm his observation, which came from George Hall in Dallas, Texas. Watching from her driveway - and abuse using a Meade LX200 12-inch - Halll captured the flash into a single image of the CCD camera.

It is not yet clear whether the brightness, probably the impact of a small nucleus of a comet or asteroid year, leave behind a trace of dark combustion in the upper atmosphere of the planet. Similar explosions in July 2009 and June 2010 have some left APÉNDICE to see in the future. Based on the image of Hall, planetary astronomer Imke de Pater (University of California, Berkeley) Estimated queue le fireball was very similar to That Observed in 2010 - "very interesting, Most Likely no purpose wreckage."

Purpose That Does not mean That You should not watch! The middle of Jupiter rotates in 9 hours 50.5 minutes (Called rotation period of the system I) - slightly faster than the speed of rotation of regions far from the equator (System II) or inside the planet (System III). Would this could impact the location of the disc approximately centered on the September 10 at 23:00 UT, Sky & Telescope purpose HAS RECEIVED no word of confirmation in this window. It was centered again on September 11 to 9:02 UT (favoring North America) and will be again at 6:52 p.m. UT (Eastern Europe and Western Asia).

Other moments of transition from Planned site to the central meridian (Expressed dates and times in Universal Time):
September 12: 4:43, 14:33;
September 13: 0:24, 10:14, 20:05;
September 14: 5:55, 15:46;
September 15: 1:36, 11:27.
Like all brands of Jupiter, the site will be closer to the central meridian of Jupiter than to the limb for 50 minutes before and Effective thesis hours. Currently Jupiter rises around 22:00 UTC or midnight local time for Europe is high a few hours later, and is observable throughout the rest of the night.

This event marks the sixth time we see something hit Jupiter, starting with a fireball recorded by Voyager 1 flew in 1979 when the famous and impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 in 1994. "Even if it ends up being flash 'just a meteor", Franck Marchis wrote (SETI Institute) in his blog about the event, "it is remarkable that amateur astronomers are now able to monitor almost continuously the planet Jupiter.”

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