Wednesday, July 22, 2009

What Hit Jupiter?

Something the size of planet Earth hit Jupiter a few days ago. Amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley of Australia comments on the huge impact scar he spotted on Jupiter Monday morning.
“If anything like that had hit the Earth it would have been curtains for us, so we can feel very happy that Jupiter is doing its vacuum-cleaner job and hoovering up all these large pieces before they come for us.”
Whatever hit Jupiter, it happened almost exactly 15 years from the time that fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with Jupiter.

Isn't it surprising though, that something believed to be the size of planet Earth could get inside the solar system and not be detected by anyone on Earth until it hit something?