Mysterious Flash on Jupiter Left No Debris Cloud

Detailed observations made by the Hubble Space Telescope have found an answer to the flash of light seen June 3 on Jupiter. It came from a giant meteor burning up high above Jupiter's cloud tops. The space visitor did not plunge deep enough into the atmosphere to explode and leave behind any telltale cloud of debris, as seen in previous Jupiter collisions.

Hubble's sharp vision and ultraviolet sensitivity were brought to bear on seeking out any trace evidence of the aftermath of the cosmic collision (right inset). Images taken on June 7 show no sign of dark debris above Jupiter's cloud tops. This means that the object didn't descend beneath the clouds and explode as a fireball. If it had, dark sooty blast debris would have been ejected and subsequently would have settled down onto the cloud tops.

Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley saw the flash at 4:31 p.m. (EDT) on June 3. He was watching a live video feed of Jupiter from his telescope. In the Philippines, amateur astronomer Chris Go confirmed that he had simultaneously recorded the transitory event on video.

This natural color photo was taken in visible light with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3.

About the colours

The image is a composite of separate exposures made by the WFC3 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Three filters were used to sample narrow wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F395N (395 nm) Green: F502N (502 nm) Red: F631N (631 nm)

About the data

The image was created from Hubble data from proposal 12119 : A. Simon-Miller (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), H. Hammel (Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.), I. de Pater (University of California, Berkeley), L. Fletcher (University of Oxford), G. Orton (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), M. Wong (University of California, Berkley), A. Sanchez-Lavega (University of the Basque Country, Spain), J. Clarke (Boston University), and K. Noll (STScI).

Note: The comparison data from HST WFC3 observations taken in 2009 are from proposals 12003 and 12045 : H. Hammel (Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.), A. Simon-Miller (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), J. Clarke (Boston University), I. de Pater (University of California, Berkeley), K. Noll (STScI), G. Orton (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), A. Sanchez-Lavega (University of the Basque Country, Spain), and M. Wong (University of California, Berkley).