[meteorite-list] Hubble Space Telescope Captures Rare Jupiter Collision

[Ron Baalke]

July 24, 2009

Dwayne Brown 
Headquarters, Washington      
202-358-1726 
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov 

Ray Villard 
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore 
410-338-4514 
villard at stsci.edu 

RELEASE: 09-176

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE CAPTURES RARE JUPITER COLLISION

BALTIMORE -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken the sharpest 
visible-light picture yet of atmospheric debris from an object that 
collided with Jupiter on July 19. NASA scientists decided to 
interrupt the recently refurbished observatory's checkout and 
calibration to take the image of a new, expanding spot on the giant 
planet on July 23. 

Discovered by Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley, the spot 
was created when a small comet or asteroid plunged into Jupiter's 
atmosphere and disintegrated. The only other time such a feature has 
been seen on Jupiter was 15 years ago after the collision of 
fragments from comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. 

"Because we believe this magnitude of impact is rare, we are very 
fortunate to see it with Hubble," said Amy Simon-Miller of NASA's 
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Details seen in the 
Hubble view shows a lumpiness to the debris plume caused by 
turbulence in Jupiter's atmosphere." 

The new Hubble images also confirm that a May servicing visit by space 
shuttle astronauts was a big success. 

"This image of the impact on Jupiter is fantastic," said U.S. Sen. 
Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., chairwoman of the Commerce, Justice and 
Science Appropriations Subcommittee. "It tells us that our astronauts 
and the ground crew at the Goddard Space Flight Center successfully 
repaired the Hubble telescope. I'm so proud of them and I can't wait 
to see what's next from Hubble." 

For the past several days, Earth-based telescopes have been trained on 
Jupiter. To capture the unfolding drama 360 million miles away, Matt 
Mountain, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute in 
Baltimore, gave observation time to a team of astronomers led by 
Heidi Hammel of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. 

"Hubble's truly exquisite imaging capability has revealed an 
astonishing wealth of detail in the impact site," Hammel said. "By 
combining these images with our ground-based data at other 
wavelengths, our Hubble data will allow a comprehensive understanding 
of exactly what is happening to the impact debris." 

Simon-Miller estimated the diameter of the impacting object was the 
size of several football fields. The force of the explosion on 
Jupiter was thousands of times more powerful than the suspected comet 
or asteroid that exploded over the Siberian Tunguska River Valley in 
June 1908. 

The image was taken with the Wide Field Camera 3. The new camera, 
installed by the astronauts aboard space shuttle Atlantis in May, is 
not yet fully calibrated. While it is possible to obtain celestial 
images, the camera's full power has yet to be seen. 

"This is just one example of what Hubble's new, state-of-the-art 
camera can do, thanks to the STS-125 astronauts and the entire Hubble 
team," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator of NASA's Science 
Mission Directorate in Washington. "However, the best is yet to 
come." 

To view the image and obtain more information about Jupiter's new 
spot, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/hubble 

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