The incident was captured by Juno's ultraviolet spectrograph (UVS), which analyses ultraviolet light focused on the planet's auroras while searching for hydrogen-rich gases.
Digital Desk: Immense objects are being drawn towards Jupiter because of its massive gravitational pull. This time, an asteroid has collided with the planet, as per reports.
In April 2020, the Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter witnessed a once-in-a-lifetime event when an asteroid sped through Jupiter's upper atmosphere. The new information paints a picture of the faraway event that caused the brief disruption in the atmosphere that Juno detected.
The fleeting emission piqued scientists' interest because it was unlike any auroras seen on Earth. In a blog update, the researchers stated that the duration and spectrum are consistent with a meteor in Jupiter's atmosphere. Further, scientists estimated the mass of the object that collided with Jupiter to be between 250 and 5000 kg.
"The Voyager and
Galileo spacecraft, as well as amateur astronomers on Earth, have previously spotted Jovian meteors. Each new observation contributes to a better knowledge of the planet's composition by constraining the overall impact rate, " the Juno team stated.
The incident was captured by Juno's ultraviolet spectrograph (UVS), which analyses ultraviolet light focused on the planet's auroras while searching for hydrogen-rich gases.
This isn't the first time an object has collided with the Jovian atmosphere. The planet was hit in September, last year, which was captured by amateur astronomer José Luis Pereira from Brazil. Notably, since July 1994, eight such events have been confirmed.
Astronomer Ethan Chappel of Texas spotted a meteor smash into Jupiter with his Celestron 8 telescope in 2019. Reportedly, he noticed a burst of light in Jupiter's South Equatorial Belt (SEB). On the other hand, in 2017, Sauveur Pedranghelu, a French amateur from Corsica, discovered an impact in the planet's polar zone.
Moreover, in October of last year, skygazers in Japan witnessed another impact on the Jovian atmosphere when they saw a dazzling flash of light originating from the planet's atmosphere in the northern hemisphere. Observations were conducted by a team led by Ko Arimatsu, an astronomer at Japan's Kyoto University. Ko Arimatsu, confirmed the strike, which was visible for around four seconds.
The Shoemaker-Levy 9, which took a death drop on the gas giant in 1994, was the first such impact ever witnessed and recorded from Earth on the largest planet in the solar system. Such impacts provide critical facts about the planet they strike, much as scientists were able to follow high-altitude winds on Jupiter for the first time after analysing Shoemaker-Levy 9.
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