Impact on Jupiter

For immediate release, July 21st, 2009

A dark spot on Jupiter's south polar region, resembling a medium-sized impact from the 1994 crash of the Comet Shoemaker-Levy onto the planet, has been seen by Anthony Wesley of Australia on 19th July 2009 at 15:54 UTC. Calar Alto is monitoring this event and has already collected optical data last night (July 20th) with the LAICA camera on the 3.5m telescope and plans to collect near infrared data tonight (July 21st) with the Omega 2000 camera on the 3.5m telescope of the newly discovered dark spot. All raw data collect is distributed publicly at (anonymous ftp):

ftp.caha.es/public/jupiter

Feel free to contact Calar Alto (Esta dirección de correo electrónico está siendo protegida contra los robots de spam. Necesita tener JavaScript habilitado para poder verlo.) if you have any question/suggestion regarding this event.

Infrared image of Jupiter impact, Calar Alto 3.5 m Zeiss telescope and Omega 2000 camera. Image processing: Carlos Román.