Last month, Jupiter was subjected to what was described as the “biggest attack” from a group of giant stones and rocks that were very clearly monitored by telescopes, which opened the door to many questions about some of the scientific speculations that spread recently, which talked about the approach of an asteroid or giant stones colliding with a planet. Earth.
Sky watchers and astronomers in Japan observed, on October 15, the impact of a strange object on Jupiter, as it was seen from several telescopes scattered on the planet, and the collision caused a giant flash that appeared in the layers of the atmosphere in the northern half of the planet.
Jupiter is under attack by giant rocks
About a month ago, astronomers in Brazil detected a similar collision on the largest planet in the solar system, which suggests that there are many unobserved and detected collisions.
An astronomer observed the scene and recorded it using the Celestron C6 telescope, and he said in statements to the “Space” organization, “I felt that the flash (the flash from the impact) was bright for a very long time for me.”
The observation was confirmed by another team of scientists at Japan’s Kyoto University, led by astronomer Ko Arimatsu, a co-member of the Organized Accidental Event Surveys (OASES) Automated Telescopes Project.
According to a tweet posted by the project’s lead team on “Twitter”, that observation included two different types of light, visible and infrared lights, which gave the buyer a strange pink glow.
According to the “Sky & Telescope” organization, 15 flashes resulting from an explosion on Jupiter were detected during the month of October, i.e. during just one month, near the southern edge of the northern middle latitude.
Giant stones attack Jupiter every month
On average, some research indicates that objects that are periodically observed hitting at least 150 feet (45 meters) in length strike Jupiter every few months.
Although the scientific “space” magazine described the repeated incidents as “attack by giant rocks and stones”, it explained this attack as the result of the planet’s gravitational force associated with its giant mass, as it is the largest planet in our solar system, and its enormous mass plays the role of a magnet. It pulls all the rocks close to its dense and turbulent atmosphere.
閃光のあるところだけスタック、画像処理してみました。
2021年10月15日22時24分JST
木星表面での衝突閃光 pic.twitter.com/JcpftmtujP— よつ (@yotsuyubi21) October 16, 2021
Observers and space experts noted that they are not sure of the devastating impact these rocks had on the surface of Jupiter, as the great distance, the nature of the atmosphere and the size factor may not help scientists monitor the destruction.
10月15日22:24(JST)に発生した、木星表面へ小天体が衝突した瞬間の閃光について、PONCOTS観測システムを用いて可視500-750nm及び889nmメタンバンドによる同時観測に史上初めて成功しました。２色同時に得られた閃光の画像をここに初公開いたします。 pic.twitter.com/Hs2wJp0s5F
— 京都大学OASES/PONCOTS project (@OASES_miyako) October 17, 2021
Observers and space experts noted that they are not sure of the devastating impact these rocks had on the surface of Jupiter, as the great distance, the nature of the atmosphere and the size factor may not help scientists monitor the destruction.
The magazine mentioned the incident of a meteorite fall over the city of Chelyabinsk in central Russia in 2013, which caused an explosion equivalent to approximately 400-500 kilotons of TNT, which is about 26 to 33 times the energy emitted by the Hiroshima bomb, as the walls of some buildings were shattered. In the surrounding areas about 1,200 people were injured.
How do scientists prepare to repel a possible cosmic attack?
A new study, published in the journal Acta Astronautica, revealed that firing a nuclear warhead at a small asteroid on a collision course with Earth can give a 99% chance of a collision.
New research by Johns Hopkins University, in Maryland, finds that a nuclear bomb, detonated near the surface of an asteroid, will destroy it and transform the asteroid into thousands of fragments bound for Earth, many of which can burn up in the planet’s atmosphere.
“If we use a powerful nuclear disruption technology at least one month before the collision, we can prevent 99 percent or more of the impact mass from hitting the Earth,” senior study author Patrick King told Gizmodo magazine.
On the other hand, some question the validity of these theories, as the idea is not always a viable option, according to King, if the asteroid is large, it must be hit from a greater distance, but “there is always the possibility of many small pieces continuing their path towards Earth and hitting it, which It causes worse problems than the impact of a large planet.”