Planet Jupiter Is Hit by Asteroid Again

For the umpteenth time, the largest planet in the Solar System, Jupiter, has been hit by an asteroid. The magnitude of the gravitational force as a consequence of the large mass of Jupiter makes small celestial objects, such as asteroids or comets, easily attracted by Jupiter’s gravity and hit the gas planet.

The first image of the asteroid collision with Jupiter on Friday (15/10/2021) was obtained by Japanese amateur astronomers with the Twitter account @yotsuyubi21. He saw a bright flash of light in the upper atmosphere in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere. “The bright light looks long enough,” he said, as quoted by Space, Friday (10/22/2021). The amateur astronomer photographed the collision using the Celestron C6 telescope.

The findings were later confirmed by a team of astronomers from Kyoto University, Japan, led by Ko Arimatsu. The Arimatsu team is part of the Organized Autotelescopes for Serendipitous Event Survey (OASES) project.

In this OASES project, the team carried out optical observations to detect and investigate stellar occultation events by Trans-Neptune objects (TNO) aka the eclipsed stars by Solar System objects located after Planet Neptune, be it dwarf planets, asteroids, comets, and other rocks. This event is able to identify rare events found in a short time.

Every few months at least one asteroid with a diameter of about 45 meters hits Jupiter.

However, astronomers have not been able to confirm whether there is dust debris resulting from the collision. Likewise, the size of the asteroid that hit Jupiter and the impact on the atmosphere that the asteroid hit is also not known for sure.

The asteroid collision with Jupiter on October 15, 2021, was only one month apart from the collision of another asteroid with Jupiter which was captured by Brazilian astronomer José Luis Pereira on September 13, 2021.

At that time, Pareira, as quoted Space, September 15, 2021, observing the opposition of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. However, just as he was just starting to record images of Jupiter, he caught a bright light in Jupiter’s upper atmosphere.

At first, he did not think that the bright light was the result of the collision of Jupiter by an asteroid. Confirmation that the bright light was an asteroid impact was obtained after Pereira sent the image of Jupiter he had obtained to Marc Delcroix of the French Astronomical Society. The asteroid collision with Jupiter did occur on September 13, 2021 at 22:39 Greenwich time, England (GMT).

Often occurs

A collision between an asteroid and Jupiter is an unavoidable event. As the largest planet in the Solar System, Jupiter has a very large mass. This large mass also makes Jupiter have a very large gravitational force that affects small objects around it, ranging from asteroids, comets, to other planets.

The study, led by R Hueso from Spain and colleagues, looked at data from asteroid collisions with Jupiter for eight years in 2010-2017 and was published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysisc, September 2018, found that every few months at least one asteroid with a diameter of about 45 meters crashes into Jupiter.

In more detail, every year there are an estimated 10-65 collisions of Jupiter with asteroids with a small diameter, which is 5-20 meters or larger. However, of these, only 4-25 collisions per year are observed from Earth.

Of the various collisions of celestial bodies with Jupiter, the collision of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter in July 1994 is the most dramatic collision story observed to date. At that time, as quoted from the website of the United States Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the comet was split into 21 parts with a diameter of some parts only about 1 kilometer.

The comet, which falls to Jupiter’s surface at a speed of 60 kilometers per second, increases the temperature in Jupiter’s atmosphere by up to 30,000 degrees Celsius. The impact also caused Jupiter’s lower atmospheric material to rise as high as 3,000 kilometers. The collision also created dark clouds in Jupiter’s atmosphere that were visible for several months.

Also read: Jupiter and Saturn Look Together, Awaken Christmas Star Memories

The number of collisions that occur on Jupiter cannot be separated from the size of Jupiter. This gas giant planet has a diameter 11 times longer than the diameter of Earth and a mass 318 times greater than the mass of Earth. Jupiter’s mass is equal to 2.5 times the combined mass of all the planets in the Solar System other than Jupiter. While one volume of Jupiter is equivalent to 1,300 volumes of Earth.

However, as quoted from Universe Today, July 18, 2016, the density of Earth is 4 times greater than that of Jupiter. This condition occurs because Earth is a rock planet and Jupiter is a gas planet.

Meanwhile, compared to the Sun, as quoted from The Nine Planets, the Sun is 11 times wider than Jupiter. One volume of the Sun can be filled with about 1,000 Jupiter volumes. Jupiter’s large size occurs because Jupiter is believed to be the first planet to form in the Solar System 1 million years after the formation of the Sun or 4.5 billion years ago. The age of the Sun is currently estimated at 4.6 billion years.

As the first planet, it can collect more dust and gas as its constituent material. The large size of Jupiter makes some astronomers call Jupiter the Sun’s twin because generally stars are found in double or twin formations, not alone like the Sun.

In addition, the main gas elements in Jupiter and the Sun are the same, namely hydrogen and helium. However, as quoted from Scientific American, October 21, 1999, Jupiter’s mass is too small to generate the high pressures and temperatures needed to form the fusion reaction that converts hydrogen to helium. This fusion reaction is the main fuel for star formation.

Its large mass makes Jupiter also have a greater gravitational force. The gravitational force on Jupiter’s surface is 2.5 times greater than the gravitational force on Earth’s surface. That is, if a person weighs 100 kilograms on Earth, then on Jupiter his weight will be 250 kilograms.

Jupiter’s enormous gravity also makes this planet have the second most natural moons or satellites in the Solar System after Saturn. NASA noted that Jupiter has 79 moons, consisting of 53 moons that already have names and 26 other moons that don’t have official names.

The number of Jupiter’s moons is only slightly smaller than that of Saturn which has 82 moons, namely 53 moons already have names and 29 moons do not yet have names.

Potential on Earth

If collisions of asteroids, comets, or other small objects occur frequently enough on Jupiter, the potential is similar on Earth as well. As quoted from Live Science, October 25, 2013, an asteroid impact early in the formation of Earth 4.6 billion years ago made Earth a planet that has water.

Also read: Jupiter-sized Planet Surrounds Dead Star WD 1856

Asteroid collision in Earth’s oceans, as quoted from Sciencedaily, July 8, 2020, is also believed to be the trigger for the formation of molecular compounds that are important for the formation of life, namely amino acids. The molecules present in these proteins are thought to be the trigger for the emergence of various living organisms that have fueled life on Earth from the past until now.

However, an asteroid collision can also be catastrophic. The extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago was also caused by a large asteroid that hit Earth. In fact, at that time this giant animal had been the ruler of the Earth for 180 million years.

Today, with more than 7 billion humans scattered across the Earth’s surface, asteroid collisions remain a threat. The event of the fall of an asteroid with a diameter of 100 meters in Tunguska, Siberia, Russia, on June 30, 1908 which uprooted 80 million trees in an area of ​​​​2,000 square meters can be a memory. Likewise, the 30-meter-diameter meteorite fell in Chelyabinsk, Russia, on February 15, 2013 which damaged 7,200 buildings and injured more than 1,500 people. All of this shows that the threat of Earth’s collision with an asteroid is real.

Even though the potential for a collision between Earth and an asteroid or meteor exists, the public need not worry. In addition to the small potential for collisions due to the large number of uninhabited areas on Earth, a number of astronomical institutions already have systems to monitor asteroids or meteorites that have the potential to threaten Earth. A number of contingency plans have also been prepared, including holding a global exercise to prepare for the unexpected event that actually occurs.

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