If you live in the southern hemisphere of Jupiter, you probably had a very rough time Sunday.
Something — possibly a comet or meteoroid undetected by earthlings — went slamming into the planet, was swallowed up in its thick atmosphere of ammonia and methane, and left the “scar” you see in the image opposite from NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. It was first spotted by an amateur Australian astronomer, Anthony Wesley.
“I suspect the impact scar itself should remain visible for a few days, maybe a week,” said Leigh Fletcher, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., who monitored the aftermath of the impact.
The mark is roughly the size of the Earth, Fletcher said. Having missed the actual impact, astrophysycists say they may never be able to know the size of the object that hit Jupiter.