Fireballs in Jupiter's Atmosphere Observed by Amateur Astronomers

[Rick]

Fireballs in Jupiter's Atmosphere Observed by Amateur Astronomers

The giant planet Jupiter -- a big target with tremendous gravitational attraction -- gets hit far more often than the Earth, and these collisions are much faster, happen at a minimum speed of 60 kilometers per second.

Amateur astronomers observing Jupiter with video cameras have been able to observe three of these collisions in the last 3 years and a detailed report of these collisions has been presented at the European Planetary Science Congress at UCL this week by Ricardo Hueso (University of the Basque Country, Spain).

"Our analysis shows that Jupiter could be impacted by objects around 10 meters across between 12 and 60 times per year," Hueso says. "That is around 100 times more often than the Earth."

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