JPL has observations that confirm that Jupiter got whacked hard by an impact.
The image was taken by the Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii. This IR image is at 1.65 microns, about twice the wavelength of what the human eye can see. What this shows is the bright impact site and to its upper left particulate matter – debris – thrown up by the impact and lit by the Sun.
So. Wow. Jupiter got hit by something big. More observations will be coming in soon, and maybe we’ll learn more about what happened.
And just to be clear; I was cautious in my earlier post, which I still think was warranted, but I’m glad to be wrong. This is much cooler than a big storm!
