> Based on the images and video provided observers, the object’s diameter is estimated at 20 meters (ft).
A 20 meter object created a fireball that could be observed from earth?
A 20 meter object created a fireball that could be observed from earth?
As a rule-of-thumb, asteroids hit at or above escape velocity. Earth's is 11 km/s, Jupiter's is 60 km/s.
Energy is the linear product of mass, but quadratic product of velocity. Hence, the ratio of an impactor's energy hitting Jupiter vs Earth is not 6:1, but 36:1.
Mind you, this is nothing compared to what happens if even a mere pebble hits a neutron star!
What would happen if a pebble hit a neutron star? I'd like to imagine the pebble would vaporize at contact or even before it(temperature/radiation etc)?
EDIT:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_star
The neutron star's gravity accelerates infalling matter to tremendous speed. The force of its impact would likely destroy the object's component atoms, rendering all the matter identical, in most respects, to the rest of the neutron star.
So a 10 gram pebble hitting a Neutron star releases about the same energy as a 100 ton asteroid hitting Jupiter.
Are we seeing the flash of it burning up? or?
What impact would something which was 20ft in diameter do to the earth?
At first I was like what the fish but with just a lil bit of thought you realize how intuitive this is. Pretty cool.
Tunguska was estimated 50-60 m diameter though I guess velocity could tend to be higher at Jupiter? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event
21*140000/500=5880 km
Someone else commented about the size of the flash relative to Jupiter itself and my understanding of that persons comment was that the flash was about 10 times the diameter of the object give or take a little. So 20 meters made a ~200 meter visible explosion.
Now somebody correct me if I’m wrong here since I most likely am, but isn’t Jupiter a gas giant? Meaning what we saw either detonated before hitting the surface, or what we saw was only the light from the impact explosion that made it through the gas/atmosphere layer above it at the point of impact. If the latter, the actual visible yield would have been higher than what we saw, right?
Since last I heard the understanding waa Jupiter probably does not have a solid surface to hit at all, “before” should probably be “without”.
400-500 kilotons of TNT
I don’t know about you but I’d consider a Hiroshima-scale explosion pretty deadly. We just got lucky it didn’t hit the middle of a major population centre at a more direct angle. That could have been catastrophic.