Another Fireball Flash on Jupiter?
11 Sep 2012, 19:40 UTC
On September 10, Dan Petersen of Racine, Wisconsin, reported on Cloudy Nights forum the visual detection of a flash on Jupiter at 11:35 UT (of September 10 2012): "This morning (9/10/2012) at 11:35:30 UT, I observed a bright white two second long explosion just inside Jupiter's eastern limb, located at about Longitude 1 = 335, and Latitude = + 12 degrees north, inside the southern edge of the NEB. I used my Meade 12" LX200 GPS telescope and a binoviewer working at 400X for the observation, seeing was very good at the time."Another amateur astronomer, George Hall of Dallas, Texas, was video-recording Jupiter at the time, and he confirmed the fireball. The video was captured with a 12" LX200GPS, 3x Televue Barlow, and Point Grey Flea 3 camera. Click on the image below for a bigger version. (Credit: George Hall) Hall also posted online a short clip of the impact video. It is possible that the flash was caused by a meteor or small asteroid/comet hitting Jupiter. This is the sixth time that we have seen something slam into Jupiter, beginning with a fireball recorded by Voyager 1 as it flew past in 1979 and the famous impact of Comet ...