A mesmerizing celebration of the Juno mission, and the creatures of a small blue planet who sent a tiny spacecraft to Jupiter, for no other reason than sheer curiosity.
Created for Apple Music, it’s haunting and inspiring at the same time. There’s a few more tracks I’ll have to check out as well.
Still image from George Hall’s video capture (click for full size)
The fireball was most likely caused by an asteroid that probably was no larger than 10-meters in diameter. That’s not very big, but just consider how fast this must have been traveling as it slammed into Jupiter’s upper atmosphere and you have a very big explosion indeed!
If this story sounds familiar, consider that this is the sixth time such an event has been observed since the 1994 impacts of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. Jupiter’s large mass captures astroids and comets into a stable orbit around Jupiter or, apparently rather frequently, pulls these objects in.
Not only does that give us some pretty amazing planetary fireworks, but we also have the benefit of not getting hit by said object. Jupiter is our Solar System’s bodyguard, taking one for the team every couple of years.
Thank you, Jupiter! Now don’t send anything our way kthanxbai.