Amateur Astronomer Discovers Evidence of Object Hitting Impact on Jupiter

On the Sunday 19th of July, Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley discovered a new dark "scar" on the surface of Jupiter. He then tipped-off NASA, who did follow-up observations using the Infrared Telescope Facility on Mt. Mauna Kea in Hawaii, and found evidence for an object hitting Jupiter.A bright spot in the infrared was seen in southern hemisphere of the giant gas planet, believed to be due to the upwelling of particles in its upper atmospheric layers. A dark spot was also seen in the NASA images, indicating remaining debris from the impact. This follows, almost exactly 15 years  after the well known Shoemaker-Levy 9 (SL9) comet crashed into Jupiter. SL9 were torn into several pieces by Jupiter's gravitational tidal forces before hitting the planet. According to South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) astronomer Dr. John Menzies, the dark and bright spots in the NASA images are "remarkably similar" to infrared images of the SL9 impact(s) he and other SAAO astronomers took 15 years ago and beamed around the world. It will be difficult to tell whether the impactor in this case is also a comet or something else. Astronomers around the world will continue to monitor the impact site and look for any new materials not seen in Jupiter's upper layers under normal cicumstances. In the case of the  SL9 impact(s), a number of different materials were detected. These materials were created under the extreme conditions generated by such impacts.See the NASA press release:www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/jup-20090720.html