In investigating flashes, the researchers thought that the length of the light burst and the observed UVS spectrum were in line with events caused by meteors in the planet’s atmosphere, according to a March 1 update on the Juno mission.
The mission team estimated that the meteor launching through Jupiter’s upper atmosphere was likely between about 550 and 11,000 pounds (250-5,000 kilograms). However, this isn’t the first time researchers have seen extraterrestrial rockgauze in the Jovian atmosphere. Jovian is a group of planets consisting of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
In fact, in September and October 2021, two different asteroids were seen shooting toward the planet just a month apart.
While closer observations with instruments like UVS could give scientists more information. This allowed them to confirm sightings like these, Jovian fireballs visible to small telescopes from the ground on Earth.
In 2021, skywatchers in Japan managed to photograph a flash of light in Jupiter’s atmosphere, an observation later confirmed as a meteor by the research team.
“These fireballs are very rare, they are very difficult to observe just by chance,” Ricardo Hueso, an astronomer at the University of the Basque Country in Spain, said.
While it’s impossible to see frequent-flying meteors across Jupiter, the planet’s strong gravitational pull makes it a possible target for meteor impacts. Jupiter’s enormous size has made it the planet with the most gravity in the entire solar system and its gravitational pull easily pulls small objects such as asteroids into its atmosphere.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which entered Jupiter’s orbit in 2016, continues to monitor the planet, studying the gas giant in detail. Research continues to reveal new insights into the planet’s atmosphere, weather, evolution, and formation history as well as more.
Juno is not the first spacecraft to see a meteor up close in Jupiter’s atmosphere. This is the second long-range mission on Jupiter, after NASA’s Galileo spacecraft, which circled the planet from 1995 to 2003.
NASA’s Galileo spacecraft and Voyager, launched in the 1970s and decades later reaching interstellar space, both spotted meteors in Jupiter’s atmosphere during their missions.
“Each new observation helps limit the overall impact rate, a critical element for understanding planetary composition,” the Juno mission team wrote in the update.
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