Image Credit: Anthony Wesley, Murrumbateman Australia

[Nice work Anthony -- and I hope NASA will at least post your name with discovery credit instead of purely "the luck of it" that they were pointed the right way. . . I wrote them a letter. . . maybe they will fix it to be more truthful. . .Les Porter, in US]

Anthony Wesley relates that: 

Impact first noted at approximately 1330UTC 19 July 2009 from Wesley's Home Observatory.

Read the discovery details here and see more images. Read Anthony Wesley's discovery narrative.

http://jupiter.samba.org/jupiter-impact.html

NASA's Embarrassing Statement. At least, it is embarrassing to me seeing them looking almost like they are claiming most of the credit for this discovery by Anthony Wesley. Sure they give a tiny touch of lip service, but they don't even credit him by name. On the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong's and Buzz Aldrin's walk on the moon, the JPL bunch, many of whom are heroes allow and issue a statement that is to me embarrassing. I'll probably get over it, but . . . just read it.

The embarrassing NASA STATEMENT:

New NASA Images Indicate Object Hits Jupiter
07.20.09

Scientists have found evidence that another object has bombarded Jupiter, exactly 15 years after the first impacts by the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9.

[original version, to me, embarrassing, since everybody knew who discovered and correctly identified it as a probable impact.]

--Following up on a tip by an amateur astronomer that a new dark "scar" had suddenly appeared on Jupiter, this morning between 3 and 9 a.m. PDT (6 a.m. and noon EDT) scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., using NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility at the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, gathered evidence indicating an impact. --

The above paragraph was replaced by one giving proper credit:  I was not the only one posting a letter probably!;  To wit:

--Following up on a tip by an amateur astronomer, Anthony Wesley of
Australia, that a new dark "scar" had suddenly appeared on Jupiter,
this morning between 3 and 9 a.m. PDT (6 a.m. and noon EDT) scientists
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., using NASA's
Infrared Telescope Facility at the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii,
gathered evidence indicating an impact.--

 New infrared images show the likely impact point was near the south polar region, with a visibly dark "scar" and bright upwelling particles in the upper atmosphere detected in near-infrared wavelengths, and a warming of the upper troposphere with possible extra emission from ammonia gas detected at mid-infrared wavelengths.

"We were extremely lucky to be seeing Jupiter at exactly the right time, the right hour, the right side of Jupiter to witness the event. We couldn't have planned it better," said Glenn Orton, a scientist at JPL.

Orton and his team of astronomers kicked into gear early in the morning and haven't stopped tracking the planet. They are downloading data now and are working to get additional observing time on this and other telescopes.

This image was taken at 1.65 microns, a wavelength sensitive to sunlight reflected from high in Jupiter's atmosphere, and it shows both the bright center of the scar (bottom left) and the debris to its northwest (upper left).

"It could be the impact of a comet, but we don't know for sure yet," said Orton. "It's been a whirlwind of a day, and this on the anniversary of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 and Apollo anniversaries is amazing."

Shoemaker-Levy 9 was a comet that had been seen to break into many pieces before the pieces hit Jupiter in 1994.

Leigh Fletcher, a NASA postdoctoral student at JPL who worked with Orton during these latest observations said, "Given the rarity of these events, it's extremely exciting to be involved in these observations. These are the most exciting observations I've seen in my five years of observing the outer planets!"

The observations were made possible in large measure by the extraordinary efforts of the Infrared Telescope Facility staff, including telescope operator William Golisch, who adroitly moved three instruments in and out of the field during the short time the scar was visible on the planet, providing the wide wavelength coverage.

JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Carolina Martinez 818-354-9382
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

carolina.martinez@jpl.nasa.gov
--end NASA excerpt--

Okay. Staff member William Golisch should be strongly credited with "adroitness" [no doubt born of practice in time constrained conditions] in handling the acquisition of the images with the Infrared Telescope in Hawaii.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/jup-20090720.html

Image: NASA

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Infrared Telescope Facility [Taxpayer funded]

If you have looked at Anthony Wesely's work above, though the image is inverted, you can see that the 3 dark spots to the right of the main dark spot on his image, have "morphed" into a more indistinct infrared thermal pattern on the NASA IRT image above. [Left is Right] the image Wesley provides is what it looks like through a small telescope (inverted). Maybe longer processing would enhance the three points, which look like low-angle ejecta debris impacts outside of the main body impact. Or more likely: additional impacts from chunks associated but traveling with the main body.

 I could give a shot at computing the infrared hinted impact energy -- but the pros build their names and reputations on credible evaluations, so I'll wait and see.

Image: NASA
Image credit: NASA/JPL/Infrared Telescope Facility [Taxpayer funded]
W.Golisch with the Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/jup-20090720.html

If you visit the NASA site above and examine the lower image, you will note a "round" image object above atmosphere of Jupiter, either a small moon or star in the remote distance or an artifact. I think it is real and likely a small Jovian moon or distant infrared visible reddish star, but it is not noted in the NASA publication.

Congratulations to Anthony Wesley in Australia for his hot tip and proof images!

 =======

This is the camera plane of the 8.4 meter LSST currently in production.

I can imagine the LSST [Large Synoptic Survey Telescope being built] crew in 10 years or so, wishing they had devoted more time to asteroid orbit and impact computations. . .Why? The images of the asteroids we have obtained all show smacks [collisions] from other objects over the 4.567 billion years they have been in existence. Once in a while, they collide and fragments have new vectors. . . The only reason I mention this is that the overall main science to be done with the LSST will primarily be studying the unverse at large, Dark matter, expansion, future.  Incidentally, it will record in a few seconds very small chunks of matter all the way out to Neptune and then some. . .in a few years we will know where most of the potential earth impactors will be coming from and which ones to watch intensively.. .

http://www.lsst.org/lsst/gallery