Left: Étienne Léopold Trouvelot Drew Jupiter on November 1, 1880, recording five large dark spots in the belt north of the planet (NTB). The stains have probably been mistakenly enlarged in this reproduction. Credit: The Trouvelot Astronomical Drawing Manual (1882) on the right: on November 29, 1880 by William F. Denning, Jupiter’s performance shows how the “train” of small dark points in the NTB has evolved over time. Credit: Splendor of the Heavens, vol. 1 (1923)
Lucky is the word I would use for all telescopic observers who were able to see one of the most surprising glasses in nature when the Shoemker-Levy 9 comet influenced Jupiter in July 1994. The collision left ink scars in the atmosphere of the planet that persisted for months, with the largest WELT visible in the smallest telescopes.
While at the time, witnessing an impact on another world seemed an event once in life, amateur astronomers and space scientists continued to record other impacts on Jupiter. To date about a dozen events of this type; Undoubtedly that number will continue to rise.
In a 2018 Astronomy and astrophysics The document entitled “Small impacts on the gigantic planet Jupiter”, Ricardo Hueso and colleagues have estimated that the small objects of about 16-65 feet (from 5 to 20 meters) or larger should have an impact on Jupiter and be observable from the earth once every 0.4 to 2.6 years. Most of these events have been captured as recognizable flakes without scars, but larger events occurred.
The most remarkable was on July 19, 2009, Dark Impact Scarp discovered by Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley. In the images taken with its 14.5 -inch reflector, the impact (about 650 to 1,600 feet [200 to 490 m] in diameter) left a dark scar 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) in the southern hemisphere of Jupiter.
In April 2024, Pawel Drozdzal, a doctorate of research. Student of the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poland, he warned me of a document published on February 1, 1997, in publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. In “Discovery of a Place Event Impact Spot on Jupiter recorded in 1690”, the main author Isshi Tabe and colleagues reported that their discovery of a dark point designed by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini in December 1690. They said that the point was similar to those produced by the person D/Shoemaker-Levy 9 of the impact. For a period of 18 days, Cassini observed and sketched this point while it was stretched by the zonal winds of Jupiter in a series of thin paths. Taking this series of drawings as circumstantial tests – and using a simple simulation to confirm their suspicions – the authors concluded that the point was “probably produced by the impact of a single astronomical object around 1690 on December 5”
Another drawing of Jupiter raised was created on 1 November 1880 by the French astronomical artist Étienne Léopold Trouvelot, recording five large black points on the belt north of the planet (NTB). The opinion in his book of 1882 described the Astronomical drawing manual of Trouvelot, noting that in October 1880, a period of four years relatively calm on Jupiter ended “when a significant confusion occurred on the northern hemisphere”. He also said that when the points appeared for the first time, “they had a certain similarity with the sun points without a penumbra, with bright signs around them, who remember in Facule. These round points subsequently enlarged considerably, until they joined the entire line, which surround the planet and finally form a narrow pink belt …”
In his classic work of 1958 The planet JupiterThe British astronomer Bertrand Peek wrote that this event was the first time in the recorded story that had been seen an outbreak of dark points at the south edge of the NTB. The points also showed the shorter rotation periods that have ever been observed on Jupiter. Planetary scientists now know that this region has the fastest zonal jet on Jupiter.
The famous British observer William F. Denning also observed the dark points of the NTB, recording them for the first time on October 23, 1880. By the end of October and at the beginning of November, he tried to identify them with subsequent transits through the central meridian of the planet, but “thus found significant changes in their appearance and distribution that only the two main points could be followed”, In fact, compared to the five substantially large points that Trouvelot designed, a subsequent design of Denning on November 29, 1880, shows how the points had evolved in a long train of small points.
While these statements remind consideration of the SL-9 impact scars, transforming themselves into a smoky red band while dispersing, scientists have no direct test of an anti-conquerie. One could postulate that an impact on objects may have triggered the creation of this disorder, since the observers had never seen dark points in that position on the planet before, but there is no evidence.
I hope you continue to observe Jupiter, as you never know when they will hit a comet or an asteroid. As always, send thoughts to sjomeara31@gmail.com
