New black spot on Jupiter -- from comet, asteroid?

An amateur astronomer in Australia was the first person to report the appearance of this black spot on Jupiter on July 19. Anthony Wesley from Canberra wrote on his online journal:

It took another 15 minutes to really believe that I was seeing something new - I'd imaged that exact region only 2 days earlier and checking back to that image showed no sign of any anomalous black spot.

Now I was caught between a rock and a hard place - I wanted to keep imaging but also I was aware of the importance of alerting others to this new event. In the end I imaged for another 30 minutes only because the conditions were slowly improving and each capture was giving a slightly better image than the last.

Eventually I stopped imaging and went up to the house to start emailing people, with this image above processed as quick and dirty as possible just to have something to show.

Impact mark on Jupiter, 19th July 2009

[#1 posted by Drowse, July 20, 2009 8:59 AM]

Anyone think of 2010 by Arthur C Clarke?

Jupiter is becoming another sun!!!

[#2 posted by Jazzhigh, July 20, 2009 9:05 AM]

This is probably a really silly question...but...where's the big red spot?

[#3 posted by Anonymous, July 20, 2009 9:08 AM]

@2 Jupiter is a sphere, you can't see the whole thing at once. It's like looking at the back of a TV and asking where the picture is.

[#4 posted by Anonymous, July 20, 2009 9:09 AM]

ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE.

[#5 posted by bbonyx, July 20, 2009 9:10 AM]

@#2 - You're aware that the image you're looking at is of a 3D object, right? ;)

The spot is somewhere on the sphere not currently visible in the images.

[#6 posted by Anonymous, July 20, 2009 9:11 AM]

@ #2
On the other side of the planet?

Jupiter's days are even shorter than Earth's. It rotates completely in about 9.8 hours.

[#7 posted by gdholtby, July 20, 2009 9:17 AM]

@#1 My thoughts exactly, it's happening a year early!

[#8 posted by Darren Garrison, July 20, 2009 9:30 AM]

The 2010 references (here and at Badastronomy-- and my first thought, too) reminded me of an article I read once in an old Science Fiction magazine. Some googling showed me what it was in (Analog, October 1989) and other references to the article, but the article itself doesn’t appear to be available anywhere. So I scanned it from my copy of Analog and made a PDF:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/17484337/Stellifying-Jupiter-by-Martyn-J-Fogg

[#9 posted by nanuq, July 20, 2009 9:43 AM]

People are surprised? When a planet is smacked by a giant asteroid, it's going to leave a bruise...

[#10 posted by Anonymous, July 20, 2009 10:00 AM]

Discovered by an amateur astronomer: Crowdsourcing FTW!

[#11 posted by Daemon, July 20, 2009 10:14 AM]

Bubonic plague?

[#12 posted by planettom, July 20, 2009 10:20 AM]

Since oddly nobody has mentioned the 1994 collision of comet Shoemaker-Levy with Jupiter:

http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/

[#13 posted by daev, July 20, 2009 10:43 AM]

"Discovered by an amateur"... yup, but one with a large-ish budget... he's got easily over $10k tied up in just the mount and main mirror on that 14.5" beast of his...

[#14 posted by Anonymous, July 20, 2009 10:49 AM]

Definitely a comet or asteroid. Or monolith.

And/or something wonderful...

[#15 posted by Brainspore, July 20, 2009 10:57 AM]

According to the Pirate's Code Jupiter has been marked for death by the other planets.

[#16 posted by noen, July 20, 2009 11:28 AM]

We should be very thankful for Jupiter. Without Jupiter taking these hits we would probably not be here.

[#17 posted by anachronismo, July 20, 2009 11:41 AM]

Its Rama!

[#18 posted by mhaze, July 20, 2009 11:59 AM]

My God, it's full of stars!

[#19 posted by cjp, July 20, 2009 12:17 PM]

Great TED lecture on the possibilities of life on Europa here:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/bill_stone_explores_the_earth_and_space.html

"Bill Stone, a maverick cave explorer who has plumbed Earth’s deepest abysses, discusses his efforts to mine lunar ice for space fuel and to build an autonomous robot for studying Jupiter’s moon Europa." (from Ted.com)

[#20 posted by dculberson, July 20, 2009 12:23 PM]

Daev, $10k isn't even a large-ish budget when it comes to astronomy.

[#21 posted by teleny, July 20, 2009 1:34 PM]

Ist nicht assteroid. Ist Hemorroid uff Chupiter. See vhat you get from etting too much??

[#22 posted by Anonymous, July 20, 2009 2:00 PM]

I, for one, welcome our giant black overlord.

[#23 posted by bardfinn, July 20, 2009 2:19 PM]

.
..
..
...
...
...
.
..
..
...
...
...
.
..
..
...
...
...

[#24 posted by daev, July 20, 2009 4:29 PM]

dculberson, I've been in this hobby for over 30 years, and I can most certainly assure you that $10K is considerably more than most amateur astronomers have tied up in a mirror and mount.

And those of you looking for the Red Spot... it's right there on the left of the image.

[#25 posted by autark, July 20, 2009 4:47 PM]

@#1 DROWSE:

Yes! I thought the same thing right away... just in time for next year.

[#26 posted by Takuan, July 20, 2009 5:08 PM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9UNzV76nCc&feature=fvste1

[#27 posted by cjp, July 20, 2009 6:16 PM]

@#23- Sorry, my brain was hardwired at birth for words, not numbers- wouldn't we want to send:
..
...
.....
.......
...........

?

[#28 posted by Anonymous, July 21, 2009 4:13 PM]

It might just be the shadow of one of its moons, seeing as you're viewing the sunlit side.

[#29 posted by Anonymous, July 22, 2009 8:01 AM]

it's the Nothing, and it's coming.

[#30 posted by Anonymous, July 22, 2009 2:14 PM]

Looks like a shadow of something above Jupiter