Labbaik meaning. A Facebook post with the footage caught the attention of John McKeon, an amateur astronomer in Swords, Ireland, who decided to review the footage of Jupiter he’d recorded the same night. “I was surprised to learn I had this data,” McKeon tells Kramer. “Within minutes I had gone through a few of my video captures from March 17 and there it was!” The image almost didn’t come to light. Kernbauer writes in the description of his YouTube video that he hesitated to look through his video footage since the viewing conditions that night were not ideal. “Nevertheless, 10 days later I looked through the videos and I found this strange light spot that appeared for less than one second on the edge of the planetary disc,” he writes. “Thinking back to Shoemaker-Levy 9, my only explanation for this is an asteroid or comet that enters Jupiter’s high atmosphere and burned up/explode[d] very fast.” Phil Plait writes that he thinks the object was probably not giant, just tens of meters wide.
The American Astronomical Society (AAS), established in 1899 and based in Washington, DC, is the major organization of professional astronomers in North America. This artist's concept depicts NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft entering interstellar space, or the space between stars. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech No spacecraft has gone farther than Voyager 1. The spacecraft is currently exploring a transitional zone between our solar system and interstellar space.
But because of Jupiter’s massive gravity, it draws objects to it at five times the velocity they approach Earth. That means even small objects hit with massive energy, creating a flash that can be seen several planets away. But the explosion wouldn’t have been recorded at all if not for the expansion of cheap, high-quality telescopes, cameras, and video equipment that allow amateurs to make significant contributions to astronomy. “Professional astronomers have only limited time on large telescopes, which means that they can take exquisitely detailed observations but can’t spend long staring at one target in the sky; time on major telescopes is simply too valuable,” Emily Lakdawalla, senior editor at the tells Kramer at Mashable. “Amateur astronomers make fundamental contributions to astronomy research, and this recent observation of an impact on Jupiter is a perfect example of why.”.
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