Mysterious objects crash into Jupiter

A flash of light appeared on the largest planet in the solar system on March 17 and experts said it could have come from a meteorite or comet.

Gerrit Kernbauer, an amateur astronomer in Modling City, Austria, told CNN that he spotted a flash of light on Jupiter on March 17, observing the planet using a telescope. He posted videos of the spectacle on YouTube and it attracted more than a million views.

Kernbauer initially did not detect anomalies in the video. " The image is not of the highest quality so I don't want to handle the video. But 10 days later, I watched the video again and saw a strange flash. It only appeared in less than a second on the edge of the disk of Jupiter" write in the video description.

The presence of lightning caused an amateur astronomer to remember the fragments of Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet into Jupiter in 1994. The American Galileo spacecraft and many astronomers on Earth have discovered collision between fragments and Jupiter.

Jupiter regularly experiences collisions with celestial bodies.(Photo: qz.com).

"When I recall the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet, my only explanation is that a meteor or comet has entered Jupiter's upper floor and burned or exploded very quickly," Kernbauer commented.

John Mckeon, another amateur astronomer in Ireland, also published a video about the sight of an object plunging into Jupiter.

Phil Plait, astronomer in charge of Bad Astronomy section for Slate.com, analyzed both videos. According to him, the mysterious object could be a small meteorite or comet.

"Jupiter is a planet at the edge of the meteorite belt. This planet is so big that its gravity can attract other objects," he said.

Although the object that struck Jupiter is small in size, Plait believes it still causes a strong impact.

"Any object will plunge into Jupiter at nearly five times its speed when it plunges into the globe. Therefore, a small stone can also cause a massive explosion on Jupiter. , the explosion did not cause significant damage to the planet's upper layer, " explained Plait.

Objects often plunge into Jupiter. In 2009, the Hubble Space Telescope discovered an object that crashed into the planet. Juno spacecraft of the US Aeronautics Agency (NASA) will come to Jupiter orbit in July this year. Juno will be the first ship to observe the dense cloud layers of the largest planet in Solar System.