Jupiter left with Earth-sized scar after comet strike

by Stevie Smith - Jul 21 2009, 15:30

Our planet’s relatively modest size may limit its chances of suffering a substantial impact from a comet or asteroid. However, the same cannot be said for poor old Jupiter, which has recently suffered a massive strike leaving the gas giant’s atmosphere sporting a fresh scar the size of Earth.

The impact scar was uncovered on Sunday through the roving telescopic passions of 44-year-old amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley, who works as a computer programmer and lives in the town of Murrumbatema just outside of Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).

Mr. Wesley duly informed NASA of the huge scar, which was subsequently confirmed by the American space administration via pictures taken by its advanced Mauna Kea infrared telescope facility on the Pacific island of Hawaii.

“I noticed a dark spot rotating into view in Jupiter’s south polar region [and] started to get curious,” wrote Mr. Wesley in his personal observation log. “My next thought was that it must be either a dark moon… or a moon shadow, but it was in the wrong place and [it was] the wrong size.”

“By two o’clock I’d come back up to the house and was sending alerts to all the people I could think of that should be looking at this and especially the professional astronomers with specialised instruments for measuring this,” he added.

After studying the pictures captured by its Hawaiian facility, NASA has said that the sprawling black scar is around the same physical size as Earth and was likely caused by a comet strike – although one of the administration’s scientists also admitted that “we don’t know for sure yet.”

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