Jupiter takes a Big Punch

    An amateur astronomer has discovered that something has crashed into Jupiter, leaving a bruise the size of the Pacific Ocean near it’s south pole. 

    The Australian astronomer, Anthony Wesley, caught sight of the “bruise” probably left by a comet. At first he seemed like he was going to quit and watch TV, but he decided to take another look and was surprised at what he saw. Wesley later e-mailed other astronomers, among them Dr. Fletcher, who was able to bring this to other astronomers. 

    â€œThis is a big event,” says Fletcher. “In the inner solar system it would have looked like a huge disaster.” Using NASA’s infrared telescope facility on top of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea, Dr. Fletcher and his colleague Glenn Norton saw through the infrared telescope and Jupiter’s “scar” showed up as a bright spot. Surprisingly this has happened before, in July 1994. Dr. Marchis stated in an e-mail that “Humans should be thankful for Jupiter.” Whatever hit Jupiter could have been pulled by Jupiter’s huge gravity before it hit. He had this to say in an e-mail, “The Solar System would be a very dangerous place if we did not have Jupiter. We  should thank Jupiter for suffering for us. It’ strong gravitational field is acting like a shield, protecting us from comets coming from the outer part of the solar system.”