Jupiter, among others, is undergoing a heavy bombardment of objects, ranging from tiny dust grains to comets that are miles in size. The largest impacts to date from comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (Asphaug & Benz, 1996) and 2009 impactor (Sánchez-Lavega et al., 2010) are rare, but leave scars on the planet that can last for several months. persist and may have consequences. the distribution of spore species in Jupiter’s upper atmosphere over decades. In yet another development, scientists have determined that indeed a gigantic 5000 kg asteroid could have hit the planet, Reportedly by IndiaToday
What helped capture the event?
The Juno mission’s UVS instrument recorded a transient bright emission from a point source in Jupiter’s atmosphere. The spectrum shows that the emission is consistent with a 9600-K blackbody located 225 km above the 1-bar level and that the duration of the emission was between 17 ms and 150 s. These features correspond to a bolide in Jupiter’s atmosphere.
Based on the radiated energy, the researchers estimated that the impactor had a mass of 250-5000 kg, which corresponds to a diameter of 1-4 m. By taking into account all the observations made with Juno UVS during the first 27 periods of the mission, the estimated impact flux rate is 24,000 per year for impactors with masses greater than 250-5,000 kg.
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Juno Spacecraft
Juno is a spin-stabilized spacecraft with a rotation period of 30sec. As the spacecraft rotates, the UVS instrument gap sweeps across Jupiter. The wavelength, slit position and precise time of UV photon detection events are recorded and this information is then used to build spatial maps of the ultraviolet radiation. The UVS instrument gap consists of two wide segments on either side of a narrow segment.