The impact on Jupiter surprises sky watchers

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Impact on Jupiter: moon Io and its shadow on one side and flash of light on the other.
Harald Paleske in Langendorf, Germany captured this image of a lightning bolt as something impacted Jupiter on September 13, 2021. Io and its shadow are on the left side of Jupiter, while the flash is to the right of center . Image via Spaceweather.com.

Photographers capture impact on Jupiter

Observers around the world were surprised on September 13, 2021, when they witnessed an apparent impact on the giant planet Jupiter. A flash of light distracted them from their target of observation: a continuous transit of the shadow of the Jovian moon Io over the face of Jupiter. A few lucky astrophotographers managed to take pictures of the flash.

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The image at the top is from Germany. Harald Paleske told SpaceWeather.com he was watching Io’s dark shadow cross the surface of Jupiter when the burst of light startled him. He said:

A bright flash surprised me. It could only be an impact.

Paleske had filmed Io’s shadow transit when the event occurred. He looked at his video footage, looking for a satellite or an airplane that might have appeared as the bright spot. But he found no evidence that the event occurred near Earth or that he witnessed an Earth event with Jupiter as a mere backdrop. He timed the event to occur at 22:39:27 UTC on September 13 and last for two seconds.

Another astronomer, José Luis Pereira from Brazil, also captured the flash of the impact. ESA operations tweeted his photo via Flickr.

A French astrophotographer, JP Arnould, also captured the surprising event.

What hit Jupiter?

It’s too early to know, but a comet or an asteroid would be the most likely culprit. As Spaceweather.com put it:

An asteroid of the order of 100 meters (about 300 feet) would do.

Sky observers equipped with telescopes from all regions of the Earth are ready to observe Jupiter after impact. They hope to spot a dark mark or temporary scar resulting from the impact. This is what happened during the most well-known impacts on Jupiter, which occurred in July 1994. Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 made a path directly towards Jupiter. Professional observatories were ready to detect the resulting collision. Shoemaker-Levy 9 left an entire trail of debris across the gas giant planet, as Jupiter’s intense tidal forces tore it apart.

A line of 3 mottled brown dots along Jupiter's southern hemisphere.
Brown spots mark the locations where fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 passed through Jupiter’s atmosphere in July 1994. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Bottom line: An impact on Jupiter on September 13, 2021 caused astronomers to look skyward to see if they can spot any lingering evidence of the event.

Kelly kizer whitt

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About the Author:

Kelly Kizer Whitt has been a science writer specializing in astronomy for over two decades. She started her career at Astronomy Magazine and has regularly contributed to AstronomyToday and the Sierra Club, among others. Her children’s picture book, Solar System Forecast, was published in 2012. She also wrote a dystopian young adult novel called A Different Sky. When not reading or writing about astronomy and gazing at the stars, she enjoys traveling in national parks, creating crosswords, running, playing tennis, and paddleboarding. Kelly lives with her family in Wisconsin.



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