[BAA 00429] New impact site on Jupiter

[Rick]

BAA electronic bulletin No. 00429 -- http://www.britastro.org/
Bulletin transmitted on  Mon Jul 20 06:14:17 BST 2009
(c) 2009 British Astronomical Association

Anthony Wesley in Australia has discovered what appears to be new impact site on Jupiter, in the form of a virtually-black spot in the South Polar Region, just like one of the SL9 impacts of 1994. It appeared today, July 19. He sent  the following message:

"Attached is my first image of a new dark spot that has appeared on Jupiter. Its in the SPR, and as you can see from the oblique angle of the dark spot in the attached image it's clearly not a moon shadow. Looks like Jupiter has been hit by something - how exciting!!!"

Link:
http://www.acquerra.com.au/astro/gallery/jupiter/20090719-155537/large.jpg

The dark spot is at L2 = 216. T. Mishina (Japan) has also reported the same spot in an image taken at about the same time.

Judging by the SL9 impacts, the spot may persist for several days at least, and should be bright in methane-band images, which some observers are already attempting to obtain.
______________________________________
John H. Rogers, Ph.D.
Jupiter Section Director,
British Astronomical Association.
http://www.britastro.org/jupiter

[Whitters]

DARK SPOT ON JUPITER
Dave Tyler has e-mailed us to send an image of a dark spot on Jupiter found earlier by Anthony Wesley of Canberra, Australia on an image of 2009 July 19 and which may indicate some form of impact.

Anthony's image shows a new dark spot in the South Polar Region at approximately 216deg longitude in System 2 according to the website for 'Universe Today'. Although it resembles the dark features seen when Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact with Jupiter in 1994, some observers have also suggested it may be merely caused by Jovian weather.

Dave Tyler adds that his image taken of 2009 July 20 (02h09mUT) with red filters using a 0.15-m aperture telescope shows some residue to the right of the main marking and speculates that if an impact the object may have entered the atmosphere from the left and boiled up material subsurface on the right.

Predicted times for observing the new feature can be found at:

http://www.universetoday.com/2009/07/19/possible-new-impact-on-jupiter/


Further observations would be welcomed and please send to Mark Kidger with a copy to the main editor.