A dedicated amateur astronomer in Brazil caught an object hitting Jupiter&#39;s surface

Milky Way - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Milky_Way

"The Milky Way contains between 100-400 billion stars and at least that many planets. ... An exact figure would depend on counting the number of very-low-mass ..."

Sep 20, 2021permalink

Point being, there are literally Billons of by chances in the Milky Way alone. That's not even considering the that many Astronomers say there are 100 billion to 200 billion galaxies in the observable universe. Then multiply those chances by that. So yeah, it's really not that hard to buy the, by chance theory. Which is one of many.

Sep 20, 2021permalink

Nebell

If we're going by the chance, where are those 25.000 civilizations that should exist only in the Milky Way?
There's no way we wouldn't detect them by now.

I'm still not buying it.

Sep 20, 2021permalink

I'm still not buying we actually have the ability to detect them.

Sep 20, 2021permalink

Nebell

You can't change physics. And even if some of them are so advanced they exist in a different dimensions, there should be many, many civilizations similar to ours that we would easily detect.
We could even detect civilizations from other galaxies.

As I'm saying, I'm not religious, but I think you should throw the whole chance theory out of the window.

Sep 21, 2021permalink

BlackSpy

Getting advanced civilizations is potentially spectaularly unlikely, but basic life is maybe quite likely. It took over a billion years of microbial life on earth to get multicelluar stuff, and hundreds of millions of years after that to get to civilization.
We're maybe in the process of learning that civilisation is maybe very unstable, maybe we all destroy our world's environment through nuclear weaepons or degredation.

So we're looking for the odds of civilizations existing close enough to detect one another and existing at the same time. Maybe there have been thousands of space faring civilizations in the galaxy over the last couple of hundred million years, and maybe they all destroyed themselves before meeting another. :(

Sep 21, 2021permalink

"You can't change physics." " there should be many, many civilizations similar to ours that we would easily detect."

Again, there is very little proof if any, that Humans even have the ability to detect civilizations from any Star System an or within other galaxies. Just because some in the scientific community states it doesn't make it so.

We can barely send an or get around in our own solar system an or know what exists within it, but sure, we have an idea what LIFE exists outside of it. This has nothing do with anyone's religious status.

We are made of star stuff which is all throughout the universe. In Huge quantities. By chance is as good of an theory as any other.

Sep 21, 2021*permalink

jeffXT

every event in the universe is based on cause and effect , nothing just "happens or occurs"

Sep 23, 2021permalink

TORN

Amazing job. Well done. Congratulations!

Sep 20, 2021permalink

Hugo808

Just think, without Jupiter hoovering up most of the stray comets and asteroids we might not even exist. Though if the one that got the dinosaurs had been caught by Jupiter's awesome gravitational pull we definitely wouldn't be here!

All this stuff going on out there and we remain largely oblivious, I like that people occasionally remind us of where we actually live.

Sep 19, 2021permalink

(unknown member)

I think it was >1km. If that thing hit us, we would be several glowing embers now :(

Sep 19, 2021*permalink

MirkoK

we definetely need a jupiter appreciation day!
this bad boy kept us safe from many rocks

Sep 19, 2021permalink

Fwiler1

I'm a little surprised by the 100m estimate.
Considering you can fit 1300 earth's inside Jupiter, it seems like that is a very big flash for just a 100m asteroid. (Or meteor if you are seeing what is shown here)

Sep 18, 2021permalink

john Clinch

I'm assuming that what we are seeing is the huge energy release, not the object. I think we are talking a 50,000 tonne object.

Sep 19, 2021permalink

rialcnis

Inspires me to get a 12" scope. I regret selling my old 8" Celestron.

Build a sand table for stability. The above video has quite a bit of vibration.

Sep 18, 2021permalink

ripleysbaby

It could have been worse. It could have been filmed vertically

Sep 19, 2021permalink

Richard2Go

I’d never heard of that camera and did a Google search. It’s not expensive, about $300 US, although I’m sure the mark-up in Brazil is huge. Of course I don’t know what his telescope may have cost him, but it does show that good photography is not about how much you spend…

Sep 18, 2021permalink

Rodrigo Pasiani

Equipment here is very expensive. Import tax, low wages and depreciated currency. Any entry level camera or telescope is, for us, a rich man's toy. The sky in that city is pretty bad for astronomy, by the way. Kudos to that guy.

Sep 21, 2021permalink

Richard2Go

Thanks, Rodrigo. I’ve spent time in São Paulo, but much more in Recife. Used to sit in the evenings on my balcony overlooking the beach, watching the ships on the horizon and admiring the stars, the Cruzeiro do Sul totally dominating the night sky. Ah, saudades!

Sep 21, 2021permalink

Perokom

Very interesting. Congratulation to Pereira for capturing this moment!
By the way where you describe the equipment which was used for capturing, you mention Televue Powermate 5x. This is not an eyepiece. It is a barlow lens or sort of a tele converter in conventional photography. CS

Sep 18, 2021permalink

RolliPoli

Isn't astronomy a discipline in which amateurs still, regularly make significant scientific contributions? Well done mate!

Sep 18, 2021permalink

santiagoelmarino

Indeed!

Sep 18, 2021permalink

The work couldn't be done without the many contributions of those dedicated amateurs.

Sep 18, 2021permalink

LookintotheMirrorlessoften

Well cost of entry for professional astronomy is a telescope the size of a house so...

Sep 19, 2021permalink

TomCodyPleasedToMeetYa

Had it hit Earth ot could have been catastrophic. It’s a genuine threat to life on Earth - though not as bad as mankind.

Sep 18, 2021permalink

AcerK

Uhh okay..

Sep 18, 2021permalink

AZheaven

After reading some of the comments below? Too bad it didn't hit Earth...And TomCody is correct about our one and only home and "humans"..

Sep 18, 2021permalink

rialcnis

Gaia wants no worship.

Sep 18, 2021permalink

AZheaven

@AcerK...ditto...99% of humans have to be eliminated from the Earth for Earth to survive. Congrats...you are not in the 1%. And since I'm close to Yellowstone? I'm guessing I'm not in the top 1% either.

Sep 19, 2021permalink

Augustin Man

@TomCody: Catastrophic for sure, especially if hitting the ground; in water probably much less...

Sep 22, 2021permalink

do you wonder sometimes if someone filming Uranus at night waiting for something to penetrate it.

Sep 18, 2021permalink

3Percent

facepalm....

Sep 18, 2021permalink

mais51

The video is real but it was recorded handheld with a Sony Mirrorless, not just an image sensor.

Sep 18, 2021permalink

ovatab

run the video frames through that neural AI image enlargement software and we will clearly see the object - possibly an alien mothership

Sep 17, 2021permalink

PLShutterbug

For The Record: I “liked” his comment because it is great satire, not because I believe in Our Alien Overlords.

Really.

I don’t.

“Is that ok? Will you let me go now?”

Sep 18, 2021*permalink

mais51

You are possibly right - the ship just returned from a mission from earth orbit observing Jeff Bezos Blue Origin space launch in July 20

Sep 18, 2021permalink

Hit & run.

Should be reported.

Anyone caught its registration plate?

Sep 18, 2021permalink

John Koch

São Caetano do Sul is part of Greater São Paulo, whose skies are seldom dark enough for good astronomy. Yes, Jupiter is bright enough to be seen, but a telescopic view will be blurry, more or less as Pereira's video appears. How can one be sure the light flash was an object that hit the planet? There are plenty of other light artifacts, near-earth, or atmospheric phenomena that could cause a dot of light to blink. It would take a very HQ shot, from Hubble or a similar vantage, to perceive the disturbances an impact would cause in Jupiter's distinctive banded cloud cover. Perhaps observers with better vantages or gear can follow up on Pereira's observation.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

http://astrosurf.com/planetessaf/doc/impact_20210913.htm

It has been verified by lots of observations

Sep 17, 2021permalink

fuego6

Lol.. who thought the image on the main page was from the amateur astronomer... too bad our tech hasn't come THAT far yet!

Sep 17, 2021permalink

Michael Piziak

Cool article.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

Cool stuff. Instead of surfing the net and commenting on DPReview that guy looks at Jupiter all nights. And after endless patience he got this.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

moimoi

Meanwhile, Planet Earth still does not get enough attention and respect from us.

Sep 17, 2021*permalink

Well. I do not know. Maybe a guy om Uranus looks in his telescope to see if some large object hits earth. Maybe a bit difficult though, as he will have a hard time to find us in his night sky.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

A dedicated amateur astronomer will likely also be the one to find any new massive Planet that might exist in our Solar System. I say within 5 years max. Great catch Pereira.

Sep 17, 2021*permalink

All the big ones are taken but they’re finding minor planet candidates all the time using automated surveys. That’s the main reason why Pluto was demoted to minor planet status, there are so many other objects just like it that have been discovered.

Sep 17, 2021*permalink

mosc

Yeah, it's not just a question of empty space. Big things (say Neptune big) have gravitational footprints on things around them. For example, you can precisely determine neptune's orbital speed (and from there it's a short throw to it's orbital distance from the sun) as a simple 2/3 ratio of pluto's orbit or so called "orbital resonance". Neptune lines up pretty tightly with a bunch of other smaller bodies in it's "lane" and yet when we look at things further out, there is no shared resonance.

I have seen some speculation based on the orientation of far out panetoids that there may be an extremely far out larger planet theorized to be something between earth and neptune in mass but extremely far and off the sun's rotational axis. I think most hunting for the fabled planet x that remains is more from looking at commonalities in orbital patterns of known planetoids in the distant solar system at this point...

Sep 17, 2021permalink

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyche_(hypothetical_planet)

That one has been debunked. The planet Tyche has been shown to not exist.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

Pluto's reclassification was all about the politics within the planetary science community and had very little to do with actual science. The definitions adopted by the IAU can't even be applied beyond the Solar System. They're worthless

Sep 18, 2021permalink

Neptune was discovered as a direct result of mathematical analysis of perturbations in Uranus's orbital path. Any massive planetary bodies remaining to be discovered within the Sun's influence will be distant, faint and not displaying significant movement from night-to-night against the background stars. If an amateur is involved in such a discovery, it will probably be as a result of predicting the object's position and brightness based on a computer analysis of the orbits of trans-Neptunian objects. With the predicted position in hand, it wouldn't take much to turn an observatory-class instrument in that direction to confirm or refute the existence of such a body.

Sep 18, 2021permalink

TheRealYeats

@Bill Ferris - Pluto was initially estimated to be the size of Earth. However, in subsequent decades additional observation and research has now led scientists to conclude that Pluto is only a fraction of the size of Earth's moon, and that there are, in fact, similar size objects to Pluto in relative proximity - and these objects have a far greater gravitational pull, combined, than does Pluto itself. Therefore, Pluto does not have the gravitational dominance necessary to be classified as a planet.

Sep 18, 2021permalink

@TheRealYeats Pluto is massive enough to be roughly spherical in shape (as are the other planets), has an atmosphere (denser than Mercury's) experiences weather and seasons. Orbiting much farther from the Sun in an area of the Solar System not as densely packed with material as the inner Solar System, the expectation that a planet would sweep up and acrete the same mass of material on the same time scale as the inner terrestrial worlds ignores the different physical and dynamical characteristics of the outer Solar System.

The fact that the members of the IAU who voted to reclassify Pluto characterized the action as a "demotion" reveals the political nature of the decision. In science, you don't promote or demote objects. You classify them based on objective criteria that can be applied to all other similar objects; not just those objects in your neck of the words.

Sep 18, 2021permalink

Pluto is in resonance with Neptune. It is a trans-Neptunian Object (TNO). There are a whole mess of them and Eris is probably larger than Pluto. So they either had to anoint a whole bunch of new planets or reclassify Pluto and all TNO’s as dwarf planets.

Sep 19, 2021permalink

" So they either had to anoint a whole bunch of new planets or reclassify Pluto and all TNO’s as dwarf planets."

First of all "they" were an minority of those able to vote an 2nd, "they" weren't' even the one that probably should have done the reclassification. Besides, what's the huge problem with a few more planets? Which most clearly are by the way, IMO.

Sep 19, 2021*permalink

Welsh

Did Pluto’s demotion affect horoscopes?

Sep 19, 2021permalink

@Old Camaras: Pluto and Neptune are in resonance with each other. Also, Pluto was not moved to its orbit by Neptune and Neptune has no significant gravitational influence on Pluto. Pluto formed in its current orbit and never comes near Neptune.

Sep 19, 2021permalink

@Bill
Pluto is probably a captured object from the scattered disc due to its composition, whereas Neptune formed from the primordial solar system. Makemake, Haumea, Quaoar, Pluto, Eris, Sedna and many others all have a common origin. Orcus and Ixion, for example, are also locked in a 2:3 resonance with Neptune, just like Pluto. They can’t all be planets!!! It’s not fair!
And I once met Clyde Tombaugh at the Texas Star Party in the early 90’s (this is true) and he looked me right in the eye and said: “Between you and me, I found Pluto by accident, and it’s not a real planet”.

Sep 20, 2021permalink

mosc

Our solar system either has 4 planets, 8 planets, or like 1,000 planets. Pick an answer. 8 seems right to me. Pluto, that means you're out.

Hard to explain why pluto is a planet and say Cheron, right next to it, is not.

Sep 20, 2021*permalink

https://www.iau.org/static/archives/releases/doc/iau0603.doc

There is a definition of what is a planet.

"The IAU members gathered at the 2006 General Assembly agreed that a “planet” is defined as a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit."

So, Pluto has Charon and Earth has Moon. Neither of them are then planets :)

Personally I am a bit surprised over this definition as it may define something catched from outside of the solar system as a planet. I thought a planet needed to be created from the original proto disc of matter. But, it seems that it does not need to be that.

Sep 20, 2021permalink

mosc

Charon and Pluto are better described as binary than a moon and a planet. For example the center of mass between the moon and the earth system is inside the earth and while the moon is tidally locked to the earth, the earth is not tidally locked to the moon. Charon on the other hand is big enough relative to pluto that they orbit a point in between each other, not internal to pluto, and they are both tidally locked to each other.

Sep 20, 2021permalink

@Old Cameras: if you met Tombaugh and he made that statement, his tounge was firmly planted in-cheek. He found Pluto as a result of a dedicated project to find a planet beyond Neptune, using an astrograph designed for the purpose of that search. He made the photographic exposures that recorded Pluto's movement against the background stars in January 1930, found Pluto while blink-comparing the glass plates in February, and walked into the observatory director's office saying, "Mr. Slipher, I've found your Planet X." It was no "accident."

Sep 20, 2021permalink

@Old Cameras: "They can't all be planets. It's not fair." Why can't they all be planets? If an object has the physical and dynamical characteristics of a planet, it's a planet.

Sep 20, 2021permalink

@mosc: Pluto and Charon are a binary planet system.

Sep 20, 2021permalink

@Roland Karlsson: It's a definition that applies only to Solar System objects. (a) orbits the Sun) and can't be applied ro other star systems. It's a useless definition.

Sep 20, 2021*permalink

@mosc - a planet needs to have cleared the neighborhood around its orbit. As there is a big chunk of rock (called Moon) in the neighborhood of our orbit, Earth is obviously not a planet. I think this definition the gang of clever guys have come up with is broken.

Sep 20, 2021*permalink

For me there is only two reasonable definitions of a planet.

1. It is anything that is large enough that encircles a star and also is the major body in a planet/moon system.

2. Same as 1 plus that the planet have to be created in place from the initial proto disc.

Sep 20, 2021permalink

@Bill
I actually did have the honor of meeting Clyde Tombaugh briefly at the Texas Star Party but he said no such thing, and at the time Pluto was still considered a planet. That was my little attempt at humor and I obviously failed!
As you know, the definition of a planet was changed to account for all of the new celestial bodies recently discovered (recently as in the last 20 years). I personally don’t care what they want to call Pluto, it’s just as awesome as it was before the change in designation. I’m sure with better telescopes that new and ever more distant bodies will be discovered, I find it all fascinating. I remember when New Horizons was launched, it took something like 9 years to reach Pluto, and then finally we got to see the pictures. And if Pluto was demoted (if it is viewed as a demotion), then the former asteroid Ceres was promoted to dwarf planet status since it meets that new definition - and we got to see awesome pictures of it as well!

Sep 20, 2021permalink

@Old Cameras I was wondering if you were joking about what he said. I didn't really doubt that you'd met him since having Tombaugh as a guest at TSP would've made a lot of sense. I also could imagine him joking about Pluto's status...scientists do serious work but they're people and have senses of humor.

Truth be told, I think the conversation about Pluto, how it and other Solar Systme bodies should be classified is a really good thing. I remember when Hayden Planetarium decided to unilaterally remove Pluto from the planets included in their Solar System display. I thought, "What a missed opportunity." They could have made it an interactive display. Let folks select the characteristics that make something a planet, push a button and a list of planets in our Solar System appears. The lists would not have been what people expected and might actually have inspired a kid to become an astronomer and try to answer the question, "What makes a planet a planet?"

Sep 20, 2021permalink

TheRealYeats

This is one of the best comment-section threads I've seen on DPR.

Sep 21, 2021permalink

FuhTeng

That's neat! Good for you Mr Pereira. What a cool find.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

QSMcDraw

I think it was Neil Van Niekerk using Jupiter's atmosphere for bounce-flash during a destination wedding.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

Lensmate

Such special dedicated devotion to a planet is highly commendable. Fabulous share!

Sep 17, 2021permalink

Could have been his second choice, for the neighbour lady not being at home that night, to moon him.

Sep 18, 2021permalink

tobyone

Decisive moment!

Sep 17, 2021permalink

David610

Agreed, but I doubt think Henri Cartier-Bresson's beloved 50mm would have helped in this case.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

We should have Jupiter day really.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

Albert Valentino

Actually, we do have a Jupiter day. We call it Thursday. All the days of the week are named after the seven visible bodies in our solar system starting with SUNday, followed by Moonday (Monday) and ending in Saturnday (saturday). In mythology Zeus is equivalent to Jove/Jupiter which is also equivalent to Thor - which is were we get the name Thorsday or Thursday.

Sep 17, 2021*permalink

Ellis Vener

“ In mythology Zeus is equivalent to Jove/Jupiter which is also equivalent to Thor”

Not quite. The equivalent to Zeus in Norse mythology is Odin. Thor’s full name is Thor Odinson. Like Jupiter/Zeus, Odin is rapacious, clever, conniving, wise, proud, and can be both benevolent and murderous.

Wednesday is derived, more or less, from Wotan, which as I recall is one of the many other names or guises for Odin.

Sep 17, 2021*permalink

Albert Valentino

By Jove, you are right! I did know Odin was top dog but Zeus had his thunderbolts while Thor had his hammer. Zeus was also loved the ladies and was a serial rapist 😃

Not sure now they decided on which names to use to name the heavenly bodies and unlike Sunday, moonday and saturnday, some names are not obvious in their association. Tuesday is all about Mars, the god of war. Mardi Gras is fat Tuesday celebration. Flip the M upside down for Mars and you get W or War, for god of war. Mars backward is Ram, which is the sign for Aries, riules by Mars, which also occurs in the moonth of MARch.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi.

Sep 18, 2021permalink

Stan K

Wow, excellent

Sep 17, 2021permalink

Jacques Cornell

"100m"??? That sounds pretty big. What would happen if a 100m asteroid hit the Earth?

Sep 17, 2021permalink

arhmatic

We would not be typing here as a starter...

Sep 17, 2021*permalink

Jacques Cornell

The Chelyabinsk meteor that made a nuclear-bomb-level boom over Russia in 2013 was 17-20m. The one that hit Russia in 1908 was 100-200m.

So, not an Earth-killer, but not fun, either.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

Wym die? It would be the biggest baddest surf ever.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

Mika Y.

A 100m asteroid impact would be very destructive locally (as in you *really* would not want to be within a few dozen kilometres of it), but for comparison the one that nuked dinosaurs was about 10 km in size.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

Franz Weber

You would most probably be able to observe it from Jupiter!

Sep 17, 2021permalink

jonby

As we nit pick over camera features and lens performance, we would do well to bear in mind that events such this will happen on Earth again at some point - could be next month, could be 100 years, but happen it will. If it lands in the wrong place, cameras will be the least of our worries :(

Sep 17, 2021permalink

Leonp

100 m rock falling on Jupiter equals a lot more energy than one on earth.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

KodaChrome25

@Mika Y. Pfffttt. The dinosaurs used the metric system?

Sep 17, 2021permalink

Ellis Vener

Replying to Mika Y

I thought the Chicxulub impactor was estimated to be close to the size of Mt. Everest. Am I wrong?

Sep 17, 2021permalink

Mika Y.

@Ellis V: Well, that would not be that far off from the estimate of a 10 km diameter object, so I think it's a reasonable comparison and not really wrong. Some sources speculate about it being even larger, but the 10-ish km estimate seems to be quite popular.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

I know about the comparison to Mt Everest, but I would say that comparison is wrong. The top of Mt Everest is at 8 km height over the sea. But the main base camp at the foot of the mountain is at 5 km height. So, the actual mountain is "only" 3 km high. And an estimate from the map, it is around 5x10 km wide, and it is a peak (with concave sides and ridges) and not a round boulder. So, I would say that Mt Everest is MUCH smaller than the meteorite, at least one or two magnitudes in volume.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event#Geophysical_hypotheses

Have seen rather convincing TV-docu's that the Russian 1908/Tunguska wasn't a meteor/astroid, but geophysics:

Sep 18, 2021*permalink

(unknown member)

Think thousands of nukes tied together and ignited.

Sep 18, 2021permalink

A 100m diameter asteroid impact would make a crater about 4-7 km in diameter. It's a city killer. Meteor Crater in Arizona is thought to have been made a 30-50m diameter iron asteroid.

Sep 18, 2021permalink

Ironic that your name is Ferris.

Sep 19, 2021permalink

Even more so if it were ferrous.

Sep 19, 2021permalink

IIRC, one of the Tunguska theories is a super-sonic megaboom, so near-hits also count....;))

Sep 19, 2021permalink

It's a good thing we've got massive Jupiter out there vacuuming up the debris that might otherwise make it to earth.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

Thankfully all the pock marks on the surface of the moon are pretty darn old.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

Theory is the moon is made out of the Earth thanks to a massive impact with another celestial body.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

Like in high school, it's good to have big friends. lol

Sep 17, 2021permalink

Aurico

Yes, but that massive impact happened when our solar system was just forming. Will not happen again.

Sep 18, 2021permalink

Never say never

Sep 18, 2021permalink

Also, never is quite relative.

Blessed are those believing the forming is finished.

As they must then be aware of any end-status....:))

Sep 19, 2021permalink

TORN

Didn’t you get the memo? ;-)))))

Sep 20, 2021permalink

BlackSpy

The dinosaur impact was 60m years ago, the solar system was formed 5bn years ago. That impact was closer to now than it is to the solar system forming.

Sep 21, 2021permalink

Saying it will never happen again is a completely erroneous statement. Impossible to prove, and there have been fairly regular impacts every 50-60 million years.

Sep 21, 2021permalink

Past performance is no indication of future results....

Sep 21, 2021permalink

Maybe not for sports players, but history repeats, both in a geological sense and a human arena. There are water, carbon cycles that repeat, and the planet passing through debris fields regularly(hence we have the Perseid and other meteor showers once a year as the earth passes through comet debris). The big gas giants clear out lots of dangerous asteroids, but there have been several massive impacts on fairly regular intervals, so it's premature to say never again based on belief alone.

Sep 21, 2021permalink

A true belief in cycles stipulates that what came with a Big Bang, will also go with a Big Bang....:))

Sep 21, 2021permalink

A reputable scientist wrote a book a few years ago that the asteroid impacts the periodic cycle are due to the passage of the solar system through a section of the milky way with higher dark matter concentration. The influence of the extra gravitation knocks asteroids inbound into the solar system. The author worked out the rotation of a specific section of the galaxy with the 50-60 million cycle of asteroid impacts to come up with the hypothesis. Personally, I like the idea of the Big Bang ending with a Big Crunch, followed by another Big Bang. Seems elegant versus an ever-expanding universe ending in the heat death of the universe.

Sep 21, 2021permalink

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51486221662_7072f7839d_o.jpg

Sort of pig-cycle, but different.
More absolute, more resolute.

Piggy-go, Piggy-back.

A never-ending expansion also carries the problem of, then, never ever being able to contact the other side (also assuming it expands with the speed of light).
And, if you can't contact the other side, you might as well have them separate anyway.
As in: makes no sense to have it all in one.

Sep 22, 2021permalink

DMillier

I noticed Jupiter was peeking out between 2 of the neighbour's houses last night (a rare clear sky). I grabbed my Skymax 127 Mak and had a quick look. A 5mm wide yellow blob with one faint line discernible that swam in an out of focus constantly. 3 nice moons all in a line, though.

The reality of amateur astronomy compared to these Hubble photos kind of makes it pointless until you read a story like this.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

grock

Still, the few times I've been able to see a planet through a telescope... still kinda feels like magic, or like I'm looking at a movie.
Also, didn't an amateur astronomer just recently discover a new moon around Jupiter? Kind of crazy that there are still discoveries like that in the solar system.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

Charlie BRM

What am I seeing from Lake Ontario, Canada, that is about 3 hand widths to the east of the moon? I am spotting it this week at around 9 p.m. EST.
It is distinctly higher in brightness than surrounding objects. Thanks.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

Leonp

Amateur astronomy has hugely changed since digital. I just found out weeks ago I could picture Jupiter and 4 moons with my second hand $150 Canon SX60, handheld.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

Antisthenes

@Charlie BRM
> about 3 hand widths to the east of the moon

Based on your location near Lake Ontario and the angular separation from to the Moon, that bright object would be Jupiter, I guess.

https://stellarium-web.org/

Sep 17, 2021*permalink

@Charlie BRM if you have binoculars, point them at Jupiter on the next clear night and see a few Jovian moons.

Sep 18, 2021permalink

stephan bock

Not so fast DMillier. Looking through a telescope is exactly like what you described. But amateurs can do things today, that rival professionals with relatively little money (<1000$ for used equipment).
All you need is a telescope with 150-250mm opening, one of these planetary cameras (or a simple webcam - even though, they are not so cheap these days :-) and a telescope mount. The process is called "Lucky Imaging" and consists of filming the planet with all its wobble and in-and-out of focus, collect several thousand frames and then use a freeware program to select the frames that were in focus by chance. These are then added up, un-distorted and voilà: a great picture. I have done this many times, and - while not exactly a hubble photo - you can get excellent pictures. (see here for one of my images of Jupiter that were created this way: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AsFi3Pz3ohL-8FHRhGtPVszQBBm8?e=a8dfT9)

Sep 19, 2021*permalink

Samuel Lucifer

Schumacher Levy - Redone

Sep 17, 2021*permalink

Lion-O

Pretty neat!

Sep 17, 2021permalink

User1234567890

👽 ?

Sep 17, 2021permalink

The Silver Nemesis

👽 using sync flash…

Sep 17, 2021permalink

DGrinb

It's so cool that some people are still dedicated and lucky to see and share things like that.
Most of us look down on phone screens instead of looking up :))

Sep 17, 2021permalink

I looked up and a bird shat in my face. Never again.

Sep 17, 2021permalink

TangoMan

@Djehuty LOL You should be a motivational speaker.

Sep 18, 2021*permalink

FantasticMrFox

I sat outside with my telescope looking at Jupiter about two hours ago. Now I'm at my phone screen.

Go figure.

Sep 18, 2021permalink

jnd

As I commented on other site about this event, I hope we will soon have couple probes observing more celestial bodies than just Earth and Sun in high resolution video from their respective orbits, so we can see this phenomenons in more detail. All it takes is some high resolution cameras and laser interlink to our home planet. Hopefully with SpaceX Starship it will be cheap enough to send dozens out there so we can gather more valuable data and of course interesting and pretty pictures for the public too.

For Jupiter it's especially needed as from this video you can't resolve more detail than about 1000 kilimeters per pixel which is very coarse indeed.

Sep 17, 2021*permalink