A couple days ago, amateur astronomers noticed a brief, super bright flash in Jupiter’s upper atmosphere. Scientists now believe Jupiter was probably hit by some sort of large object — probably a pretty major asteroid or comet.
Jupiter does this kind of thing a lot. The planet is so large it pretty much acts as a space vacuum, sucking in all sorts of debris that would otherwise be pelting the planets of the inner solar system, including Earth. So heeey, we owe you a solid Jupiter. Next time our orbital paths are their closest point we’re totally gonna buy you dinner or something.
Hit the jump for video of the impact…
Ouch. That’s gotta hurt.
via io9
![[avatar]](http://p.uproxxcdn.com/photo/3998/thumb)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/it-looks-like-nasas-kepler-telescope-has-come-to-the-end-of-the-road-150x150.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/04/kepler-62-system-exoplanets-yo-mamma-150x150.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/02/omgcat61-150x128.gif)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/01/you-will-not-go-to-space-today-15-150x150.jpg)
JUPITERMAHGERD!
Jupiter does live in worse neighborhood than we do for this sort of thing. Not that I don’t appreciate it.
Walk it off Jupiter!
Rub some space dust on it.
typical. Oversized friend acts as a rockblocker. Some truths are universal.
Somewhere Barack Obama is wiping his damp forehead with a handkerchief and tucking away Morgan Freeman’s speech from “Deep Impact” for another day.
I’d rather hear it from Morgan Freeman.
Who wouldn’t rather hear anything from Morgan Freeman?
“Mister Porky…I wish I could tell you your bicuspids fought the good fight, and the decay let them be. I wish I could tell you that, but gingivitis is no fairy tale world.”