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Hubble Image of Jupiter Impact Site

topic posted Fri, July 24, 2009 - 5:56 PM by  Hummingbird 		Share/Save/Bookmark
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Hummingbird
offline Hummingbird
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  • Serge
    Serge
    offline 15

    Re: Hubble Image of Jupiter Impact Site

    Thu, July 30, 2009 - 11:08 AM
    I just received a subscription email from JPL about this.
    Here it is:


    ____________________________________________

    DC Agle 818-393-9011
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
    agle@jpl.nasa.gov

    INTERNET ADVISORY: 2009-115, July 29, 2009

    NASA to Provide Web Updates on Objects Approaching Earth

    PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is introducing a new Web site that will provide a centralized resource for information on near-Earth objects – those asteroids and comets that can approach Earth. The "Asteroid Watch" site also contains links for the interested public to sign up for NASA's new asteroid widget and Twitter account.

    "Most people have a fascination with near-Earth objects," said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL. "And I have to agree with them. I have studied them for over three decades and I find them to be scientifically fascinating, and a few are potentially hazardous to Earth. The goal of our Web site is to provide the public with the most up-to-date and accurate information on these intriguing objects."

    The new Asteroid Watch site is online at www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch .

    It provides information on NASA's missions to study comets, asteroids and near-Earth objects, and also provides the basic facts and the very latest in science and research on these objects. News about near-Earth object discoveries and Earth flybys will be available and made accessible on the site via a downloadable widget and RSS feed. And for those who want to learn about their space rocks on the go, a Twitter feed is offered. "Asteroid Watch" also contains a link to JPL's more technical Near-Earth Objects Web site, where many scientists and researchers studying near-Earth objects go for information.

    "This innovative new Web application gives the public an unprecedented look at what's going on in near-Earth space," said Lindley Johnson, program executive for the Near-Earth Objects Observation program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

    NASA supports surveys that detect and track asteroids and comets passing close to Earth. The Near-Earth Object Observation Program, commonly called "Spaceguard," also plots the orbits of these objects to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet.

    JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.



    -end-

    ____________________________________________


    From: subscription email

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  • Stic...
    Stickboy
    offline 123

    Re: Hubble Image of Jupiter Impact Site

    Thu, July 30, 2009 - 11:16 AM
    Since it's a gas giant, how exactly does an "impact" work?
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    • Serge
      Serge
      offline 15

      Re: Hubble Image of Jupiter Impact Site

      Thu, July 30, 2009 - 11:41 AM
      Gas giant does not necessarily mean it consists entirely of gas.
      It is believed that it has a massive, giant, core like any other planet, (unless some new probe went and checked and found out the opposite by now). It's just that it is so massive that it is capable of attracting that amount of gasses that get around its zone of gravity. So, as an object approaches/hits the planet, it first has to go through its giant gaseous atmosphere, where it creates those immence holes the size of a small planet, and such.
      Think of a plain flying into a cloud - exactly the same thing, only on a larger scale and "insaner" speeds.
      ...
      So, as the object approaches the central core of, say, Jupiter, it gets torn by ever stronger gravitational forces and eventually, whatever is left, burns in the atmosphere, I would assume.
      ...

      Personally, I don't think anything ever reaches the surface because after having been torn into ever smaller pieces, the object never has time to get all the way down - it just burns out on its way through; just like we see it here on Earth.

      There is a way to calculate how large, (and dense), should be an object to be able to get through, all the way to the surface of a gas giant. Those of you, Titans of Thought, who will get bored and out of it will decide to actually calculate it, I would say, (off the top of my head), this would probably depend on - density/composition of the object, density of the atmosphere, speed of the object, (not that much) the angle of approach, thikness of the atmosphere.
      If I were to speculate, I would say that in order to actually "survive" long enough to reach the surface of a planet like, say, our Jupiter, the object should be around the size of our Moon, at least.
      However, I may be wrong. I don't have all the data on Jupiter.

      ...
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      • Troy
        Troy
        offline 62

        Re: Hubble Image of Jupiter Impact Site

        Thu, July 30, 2009 - 2:03 PM
        "There is a way to calculate how large, (and dense), should be an object to be able to get through, all the way to the surface of a gas giant. Those of you, Titans of Thought, who will get bored and out of it will decide to actually calculate it, I would say, (off the top of my head), this would probably depend on - density/composition of the object, density of the atmosphere, speed of the object, (not that much) the angle of approach, thikness of the atmosphere.
        If I were to speculate, I would say that in order to actually "survive" long enough to reach the surface of a planet like, say, our Jupiter, the object should be around the size of our Moon, at least.
        However, I may be wrong. I don't have all the data on Jupiter."

        Serge,

        You are right there are ways to calculate how deep an object can go, but it is very complex. Speed is a huge factor, the slower the object the deep it can go... I think you got all the right factors except for missing the mass of the planet.
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        • Serge
          Serge
          offline 15

          Re: Hubble Image of Jupiter Impact Site

          Fri, July 31, 2009 - 10:00 AM
          Thanks, Troy.
          Well, I "indirectly" implied the importance of mass. Since I'd mentioned that the/an object gets torn apart ever more and more as it gets closer to the planet, I assumed that it would be understood that an enormous gravitational pull would imply the appropriate amount of mass.
          ...

          I guess I should have been a little more elaborate. I was in a public library and I had to go, so I did a shorty.
          ...

          Oh, well...

          :)
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