Why is Jupiter affected by so many objects in space?

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One of the most terrifying perspectives on Earth is when our planet will be hit by a large asteroid or fast-moving comet. Even a modest fragment of such an object can hit the Earth with such force that the site of the impact will be devastated. If the strike puts enough energy in the right place, like the 2013 Chelyabinsk event (above) or the 1908 event in Tunguska, millions of people could die and property damage of up to billions of dollars .

The impact on the Earth of even larger collisions, such as the event that created the crater of Barringer or even – even more catastrophically – the impactor that caused the crater of Chixulub about 65 million years ago, can still be measured. Yet all the violence the Earth has endured is nothing compared to what Jupiter, the most affected object in the solar system, is going through. We all received a reminder on August 7, 2019.

You may be wondering why Jovian strikes are so common. Does Jupiter strike most often because it's such a strong source of gravity? After all, if you exclude the Sun, Jupiter is as massive as all planets, moons, asteroids, Kuiper belt and clouds left in our solar system. Or, perhaps more prosaically, is Jupiter simply hit the most, because it's the biggest target of the solar system? Is it just "too big to miss?"

On March 17, 2016, two amateur astronomers – Gerrit Kernbauer and John Mckeon (below) – reminded us that Jupiter was observing Jupiter and recording the imagery data when it was in the air. a surprising flash occurred. member of the gas giant. If you look the video that John Mckeon uploaded to YouTubeyou simply can not miss it.

The only known thing that can produce such flashes are the impact events. Although flashes attract more attention than others, like the recent moon strikes, Jupiter not only receives more impact than any other world, but it receives a fraction of impacts more energetic than any other body known to the solar system. (Except the sun, of course.)

In terms of flashes and strikes, we have seen a lot in recent years at Jupiter, mainly thanks to the efforts of amateur astronomers who like to watch it, even if there is no professional telescope.

Fans are responsible for discovering a large number of impacts in recent years, including some of the most famous ones.

In June 1994, comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was separated and collided with Jupiter, an event predicted one year in advance through our understanding of gravity. The comet itself was discovered the previous year by amateur astronomers: Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker and (independently) David Levy.

This collision led to a spectacular observation campaign by professionals and amateurs alike. Although the fragments collided with Jupiter for six days, they darkened the surface of Jupiter for months. Before splitting into more than 20 fragments, the original comet probably had a diameter of about 5 km: the estimated size of the impactor having eliminated the dinosaurs.

In July 2009, amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley discovered on Jupiter a black spot the size of the Earth. Based on what we learned in Shoemaker-Levy 9, we were able to deduce the approximate body parameters that were hitting it from the tracking images taken by professionals with state-of-the-art ground-based telescopes and on the ground.

The conclusion was that this black spot probably resulted from the impact of an asteroid whose size was between 200 km and 500 km. Thousands of times the energy of the Tunguska event has been released due to the impact of this object; If it had hit the United States, it could have wiped out the human population of a state the size of Pennsylvania.

However, in the 2010s, the sightings of the Jupiter strikes really took off. & Nbsp; In June 2010, another shot was observed on Jupiter, in real time, by Anthony Wesley (again!) And, independently, by Christopher Go. The flash only lasted two seconds, which corresponds to a mass of about 500-2000 tons and at a height of about 8-13 meters. Jupiter is probably struck by several objects of this size every year, according to the Gemini Observatory.

A few months later, in August 2010, Jupiter also had another impact (shown above): a slightly weaker and smaller flash; it was probably comparable in energy to the Chelyabinsk event. With our current understanding of Jupiter, we can actually begin to classify objects that hit it. Once again, it was discovered by another amateur: this time, the honor goes to Masayuki Tachikawa of Japan.

There are many others, all of whom have their own spectacular story. (And, sometimes, their own spectacular images.) & Nbsp; In September 2012, Dan Petersen observed another "flash" on Jupiter, and this time another astronomer, George Hall, captured a video (above). This sequence allowed the scientists to determine that the strike of August 2010 was about the same size and magnitude: less than 10 meters in diameter.

When you add the recent strikes of March 2016, May 2018 and August 2019, they fall somewhere between: smaller than the strike of 2009, but larger than the strikes of September 2012 or August 2010. Estimates place their sizes between 10 and 20 meters.

There have probably been others, and there will certainly be others to come, but all the data indicates that Jupiter is hit more often than any other world. The big question, of course, is why?

The first thing you will think about is the size, without a doubt. When we talk about the frequency of collisions in a system, the simplest estimate you can take is to multiply three things together:

1. the speed of objects (comets, asteroids, meteors, etc.) in question,
2. the density of objects that can potentially interact,
3. and the cross section of what they might hit.

The speeds are almost exactly the same for comets and asteroids that pass through Jupiter than those that pass through the Earth, and the numerical density is about the same, although Jupiter has a slight advantage, because of its proximity closer to the asteroid. belt. But the sections are very different: Jupiter is about 11.2 times the diameter of the Earth, which means it has about 125 times the section.

However, the frequency of significant impacts is not even close to the explanation only by size and cross section. The impact of 2009 on Jupiter is due to a bigger object than the one that created Barringer Crater (above) in Arizona. It is estimated that these strikes occur on Earth only once, between 10,000 and 100,000 years ago.

If it was only about size, one would not expect an impact of this magnitude on Jupiter more often than once a century. Yet we have seen two as big or bigger on Jupiter in just 25 years! & Nbsp; This suggests & nbsp; another uncomfortable fact: if the Earth were hit by these bulky objects as frequently as Jupiter seems to be, we would not only see Barringer craters the size of a century ago or more, but we would have events at the extinction level thousands of times more often than we actually do!

The asteroid "killing dinosaurs" was an attack 5 to 10 km wide on the planet Earth, occurred 65 million years ago. In contrast, Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit Jupiter in 1994 and had the same scale and energy. Did we literally arrive at a unique event once every 500,000 years in 1994?

This is highly unlikely. Instead, we must consider the other main aspect in which Jupiter is different from the Earth: its gravity. Planets do not exist simply in space and expect things to happen to them; they deform the fabric of space-time itself in a way directly proportional to their mass. The more massive a planet is, the more it exerts a gravitational pull on all surrounding, infernal and neighboring masses.

In comparison, the gravitational field of the Earth is quite weak when viewed next to Jupiter. If an object passes near the Earth moving slowly, 10 km / s or less, the gravitational field of our planet will do very well to attract it to our world. However, asteroids generally travel at 17 km / s or more compared to us, while comets move at more than 50 km / s. In other words, our gravitational field does not do much to help us in our attempt to attract objects by gravitation.

But Jupiter has 317 times the mass of the Earth. Even with its large radius, it attracts objects very well as they move less than 50 km / s from it. In other words, all the asteroids and most comets that pass near Jupiter run the risk of being drawn into a collision with this giant world, just by its gravity.

Yes, Jupiter is larger than the Earth and this improved size has a little more than a factor 100 in collision frequency. But realistically, collisions on Jupiter are even hundreds of times more frequent than that. Why? Because the gravitational pull of Jupiter is enough to attract a considerable number of comets and asteroids that approach too much, in a way that the Earth can not. Jupiter is hit so often because of the combination of gravity and the fact that objects far from the Sun, even comets that move fast, have a slower speed and are therefore easier to capture.

Size matters, but not as much as gravity. In particular, not as much as the gravity does with respect to the speed of movement of objects close to this giant gas. The only object of the solar system to better capture asteroids and comets is the sun, but Jupiter is a very powerful # 2! & Nbsp; Jupiter, contrary to popular belief, does not really seem to protect the inner solar system, but rather serves as an extremely good punching bag for objects that otherwise would not hit anything at all.

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One of the most terrifying perspectives on Earth is when our planet will be hit by a large asteroid or fast-moving comet. Even a modest fragment of such an object can hit the Earth with such force that the site of the impact will be devastated. If the strike puts enough energy in the right place, like the 2013 Chelyabinsk event (above) or the 1908 event in Tunguska, millions of people could die and property damage of up to billions of dollars .

The impact on Earth of even larger strikes, such as the event that created the crater of Barringer or – even more catastrophic – the impactor that caused the crater of Chixulub there are about 65 million years, can still be measured. Yet all the violence the Earth has endured is nothing compared to what Jupiter, the most affected object in the solar system, is going through. We all received a reminder on August 7, 2019.

You may be wondering why Jovian strikes are so common. Does Jupiter strike most often because it's such a strong source of gravity? After all, if you exclude the Sun, Jupiter is as massive as all planets, moons, asteroids, Kuiper belt and clouds left in our solar system. Or, perhaps more prosaically, is Jupiter simply hit the most, because it's the biggest target of the solar system? Is it just "too big to miss?"

On March 17, 2016, two amateur astronomers – Gerrit Kernbauer and John Mckeon (below) – had just recalled something more subtle by observing Jupiter and recording the imaging data when an amazing flash appeared at level of the gas giant. If you watch the video that John Mckeon uploaded to YouTube, you simply can not miss it.

The only known thing that can produce such flashes are the impact events. Although flashes attract more attention than others, like the recent moon strikes, Jupiter not only receives more impact than any other world, but it receives a fraction of impacts more energetic than any other body known to the solar system. (Except the sun, of course.)

In terms of flashes and strikes, we have seen a lot in recent years at Jupiter, mainly thanks to the efforts of amateur astronomers who like to watch it, even if there is no professional telescope.

Fans are responsible for discovering a large number of impacts in recent years, including some of the most famous ones.

In June 1994, comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was separated and collided with Jupiter, an event predicted one year in advance through our understanding of gravity. The comet itself was discovered the previous year by amateur astronomers: Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker and (independently) David Levy.

This collision led to a spectacular observation campaign by professionals and amateurs alike. Although the fragments collided with Jupiter for six days, they darkened the surface of Jupiter for months. Before splitting into more than 20 fragments, the original comet probably had a diameter of about 5 km: the estimated size of the impactor having eliminated the dinosaurs.

In July 2009, amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley discovered on Jupiter a black spot the size of the Earth. Based on what we learned in Shoemaker-Levy 9, we were able to deduce the approximate body parameters that were hitting it from the tracking images taken by professionals with state-of-the-art ground-based telescopes and on the ground.

The conclusion was that this black spot probably resulted from the impact of an asteroid whose size was between 200 km and 500 km. Thousands of times the energy of the Tunguska event has been released due to the impact of this object; If it had hit the United States, it could have wiped out the human population of a state the size of Pennsylvania.

However, in the 2010s, the sighting of strikes on Jupiter really took off. In June 2010, Anthony Wesley (again!) And, independently, Christopher Go observed another strike on Jupiter, in real time. The flash lasted only two seconds, which corresponds to a mass of about 500-2000 tons and a size of about 8-13 meters. Jupiter is probably struck by several objects of this size every year, according to the Gemini Observatory.

A few months later, in August 2010, another impact on Jupiter (shown above) was observed, with a slightly smaller and smaller flash; it was probably comparable in energy to the Chelyabinsk event. With our current understanding of Jupiter, we can actually begin to classify objects that hit it. Once again, it was discovered by another amateur: this time, the honor goes to Masayuki Tachikawa of Japan.

There are many others, all of whom have their own spectacular story. (And, sometimes, their own spectacular images.) In September 2012, Dan Petersen observed another "flash" on Jupiter, and this time another astronomer, George Hall, captured a video (above). This sequence allowed the scientists to determine that the strike of August 2010 was about the same size and magnitude: less than 10 meters in diameter.

When you add the recent strikes of March 2016, May 2018 and August 2019, they fall somewhere between: smaller than the strike of 2009, but larger than the strikes of September 2012 or August 2010. Estimates place their sizes between 10 and 20 meters.

There have probably been others, and there will certainly be others to come, but all the data indicates that Jupiter is hit more often than any other world. The big question, of course, is why?

The first thing you will think about is the size, without a doubt. When we talk about the frequency of collisions in a system, the simplest estimate you can take is to multiply three things together:

1. the speed of objects (comets, asteroids, meteors, etc.) in question,
2. the density of objects that can potentially interact,
3. and the cross section of what they might hit.

The speeds are almost exactly the same for comets and asteroids that pass through Jupiter than those that pass through the Earth, and the numerical density is about the same, although Jupiter has a slight advantage, because of its proximity closer to the asteroid. belt. But the sections are very different: Jupiter is about 11.2 times the diameter of the Earth, which means it has about 125 times the section.

However, the frequency of significant impacts is not even close to the explanation only by size and cross section. The impact of 2009 on Jupiter is due to a bigger object than the one that created Barringer Crater (above) in Arizona. It is estimated that these strikes occur on Earth only once, between 10,000 and 100,000 years ago.

If it was only about size, one would not expect an impact of this magnitude on Jupiter more often than once a century. Yet we have seen two as big or bigger on Jupiter in just 25 years! This suggests another uncomfortable fact: if Earth were hit by these big objects as often (for its size) as Jupiter seems to be, we would not only see strikes the size of a Barringer Dam. Crater every century or more, but we would have extinction-level events thousands of times more often than we actually do!

The asteroid "killing dinosaurs" was an attack 5 to 10 km wide on the planet Earth, occurred 65 million years ago. In contrast, Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit Jupiter in 1994 and had the same scale and energy. Did we literally arrive at a unique event once every 500,000 years in 1994?

This is highly unlikely. Instead, we must consider the other main aspect in which Jupiter is different from the Earth: its gravity. Planets do not exist simply in space and expect things to happen to them; they deform the fabric of space-time itself in a way directly proportional to their mass. The more massive a planet is, the more it exerts a gravitational pull on all surrounding, infernal and neighboring masses.

En comparaison, le champ gravitationnel de la Terre est assez faible quand on le regarde à côté de Jupiter. Si un objet passe près de la Terre en se déplaçant lentement, à 10 km / s ou moins, le champ gravitationnel de notre planète le fera très bien pour l’attirer vers notre monde. Mais les astéroïdes se déplacent généralement à 17 km / s ou plus par rapport à nous, tandis que les comètes se déplacent à plus de 50 km / s. En d&#39;autres termes, notre champ gravitationnel ne fait pas grand-chose pour nous aider dans notre tentative d&#39;attirer des objets par gravitation.

Mais Jupiter a 317 fois la masse de la Terre. Même avec son grand rayon, il attire très bien les objets tant que ceux-ci se déplacent à moins de 50 km / s par rapport à lui. En d’autres termes, tous les astéroïdes et la plupart des comètes qui passent près de Jupiter courent le risque d’être entraînés dans une collision avec ce monde géant, rien que par sa gravité.

Oui, Jupiter est plus grand que la Terre et cette taille améliorée compte un peu plus d&#39;un facteur 100 en fréquence de collision. Mais de manière réaliste, les collisions sur Jupiter sont même des centaines de fois plus fréquentes que cela. Pourquoi? Parce que l&#39;attraction gravitationnelle de Jupiter est suffisante pour attirer un nombre considérable de comètes et d&#39;astéroïdes qui s&#39;en approchent trop, d&#39;une manière que la Terre ne peut pas. Jupiter est frappé si souvent à cause de la combinaison de la gravité et du fait que les objets éloignés du Soleil, même les comètes qui se déplacent rapidement, ont une vitesse plus lente et sont donc plus faciles à capturer.

La taille compte, mais pas autant que la gravité. En particulier, pas autant que la gravité le fait par rapport aux vitesses de déplacement des objets proches de ce géant gazier. Le seul objet du système solaire permettant de mieux capturer les astéroïdes et les comètes est le Soleil, mais Jupiter est un n ° 2 très puissant! Jupiter, contrairement à la croyance populaire, ne semble pas vraiment protéger le système solaire intérieur, mais sert plutôt de sac de frappe extrêmement bon pour des objets qui, sinon, ne frapperaient rien du tout.