Amateur skywatchers have spotted what appeared to be a new fireball from yet another apparent impact on Jupiter – the third in 13 months for the gas giant.
The Astronomical Research Center (A.R.C) mentioned that Amateur astronomer Masayuki Tachikawa of Kumamoto city, Japan, caught the fireball on video Aug. 20, according to the website Spaceweather.com, which monitors space weather and other cosmic events.
Tachikawa spotted the fireball at 3:22 a.m. Japan Standard Time (1822 GMT, or 2:22 p.m. EDT). [High-resolution images of the fireball.]
A separate image of the fireball was later confirmed by another Japanese amateur astronomer, Aoki Kazuo of Tokyo. Kazuo recorded a flash on Jupiter at the same time and in the same place on the gas giant that Tachikawa did, Spaceweather.com reported.
In addition to supporting the likelihood of an impact, the separation between the two observers — over 490 mile (roughly 800 km) — excluded the possibility that the flash came from an event near Earth, explained SpaceweatherTony Phillips.