Two million tons of TNT. This is the equivalent of the impact of a meteorite in October 2021. Since this is an impact on Jupiter, the planet was able to take some. But it produced a burst of light sufficient to be seen on Earth.
Special telescope for Jupiter
Astronomer Ko Arimatsu and his colleagues at Kyoto University, Japan, observed it with the PONCOTS telescope (Planetary Observation Camera for Optical Transient Surveys), a small instrument specially dedicated to Jupiter.
It’s the brightest light ‘flash’ since 1994, when Comet Shoemaker-Levy also slammed into the giant planet, they say. in their articlepre-released in early June.
