Jupiter – Our (recent) Cosmic Protector

Jupiter has been our protector; it’s tremendous gravity both brings some asteroids closer to Earth, others it slings away and even others it pulls into its own atmosphere taking one for the team. (That team consists of Mercury, Venus & Earth)

On Sunday morning last, our fierce protector, that lovable gas giant took another hit. An amateur astronomer in Dallas happen to catch a huge explosion on Jupiter’s surface. He wasn’t aware that he had caught it until he was reviewing his footage. What the footage shows is an explosion about 100 miles in diameter and the flash was the equivalent of a fourth magnitude star.

It is believed that it was a rather large asteroid or comet but so far there has been no report of an impact scar or dimple on Jupiter’s surface.