A couple days ago, amateur astronomers noticed a brief, super bright flash in Jupiter’s upper atmosphere. Scientists now believe Jupiter was probably hit by some sort of large object — probably a pretty major asteroid or comet.
Jupiter does this kind of thing a lot. The planet is so large it pretty much acts as a space vacuum, sucking in all sorts of debris that would otherwise be pelting the planets of the inner solar system, including Earth. So heeey, we owe you a solid Jupiter. Next time our orbital paths are their closest point we’re totally gonna buy you dinner or something.
Hit the jump for video of the impact…
Ouch. That’s gotta hurt.
via io9