Amateur astronomer George Hall sure was looking at the right place at the right time on Monday.
The Dallas skywatcher caught a fireball in Jupiter’s atmosphere, most likely a small asteroid or comet snared by the giant planet’s gravity. Similar impacts were observed in June and August 2010.
“An analysis of those earlier events suggests that Jupiter is frequently struck by 10 meter-class asteroids — one of the hazards of orbiting near the asteroid belt and having such a strong gravitational pull,” Spaceweather.com writes.
Hall has posted a 4-second video of the explosion on Flickr.
Image: Incoming! Credit: George Hall/Spaceweather.com
