Pacific-Ocean-Sized Explosion On Jupiter Highlights Stephen Hawking's "Asteroid" Theory

In further evidence that space itself is an action movie (or at least that God watches Michael Bay movies), an explosion the size of the Pacific ocean has scarred Jupiter.  Yes, the entire ocean.  The explosion occurred on July 19 when an asteroid slammed into the planet, and although Jupiter has no solid ground the gas can still get thick enough for things like "impacts" and "KABOOM" to happen.

The Jupiter impact event is another big red line underscoring Stephen Hawking's theory that one of the major factors in the possible scarcity of intelligent life in our galaxy is the high probability of an asteroid or comet colliding with inhabited planets. We have observed, Hawking pointed out in his lecture Life in the Universe, the collision of a comet, Schumacher-Levi, with Jupiter (below), which produced a series of enormous fireballs, plumes many thousands of kilometers high, hot "bubbles" of gas in the atmosphere, and large dark "scars" on the atmosphere which had lifetimes on the order of weeks. The  July 19th event is a weak second place, but still totally awesome (and awesome if projected to a planet called Earth).

One of the most interesting things about the explosion is that it was detected by an amateur astronomer.  We might have a lot of super-slick space-searching sensors, but there's still a hell of a lot more space to watch than we have equipment to watch it - which is why Australian hobbyist Anthony Wesley was the first to see it.  The information spread online, and Berkeley astronomer changed his plans for pre-booked time on the Hawaiian Keck II telescope, abandoning his planet-hunting to get a closer look.  A much cooler use of internet communications than tweeting about sandwiches.

The resulting scar on the surface of Jupiter shows up as a dark patch in visible light, but a very bright spot in infrared, caused by a radical rearrangement of gases in the region of the detonation.  The bright spot will also allow scientists to examine the motion of gases in Jupiter's atmosphere, test theories developed during past impacts, and generally think "Wow, this stuff we do is pretty awesome, isn't it?"

Many more tools will soon be brought to bear on this huge planetary event.  Hubble will be getting in on the action, bringing its brand-new wide angle camera to bear, while Berkeley will be bringing laser guide stars to bear (artificial star-signals created in the atmosphere by laser beam, allowing the use of adaptive optic telescopes which can correct for the atmosphere's effects on light).  So even the tools being used to look at this are awesome.

As Stephen Hawking says, the general consensus is that any comet or asteroid greater than 20 kilometers in diameter that strikes the Earth will result in the complete annihilation of complex life - animals and higher plants. (The asteroid Vesta, for example, one of the destinations of the Dawn Mission, is the size of Arizona).

But back to Professor Hawking, he of black-hole radiation fame: How many times in our galaxy alone has life finally evolved to the equivalent of our planets and animals on some far distant planet, only to be utterly destroyed by an impact? Galactic history suggests it might be a common occurrence. Our cold comfort comes from the adjective "galactic" -that's a hugely different time perspective that our biblical three score and ten.

Luke McKinney

Stephen Hawking: "Asteroid Impacts Biggest Threat to Intelligent Life in the Galaxy"

The NEO Code -Earth's Hotspots Most at Risk Of Getting Hit by an Asteroid

Jupiter Explosion

Comments

[Albert]

Planet X - Oort Cloud ?
- Astronomers say that the comets in the periphery of our solar system - the Kuiper Belt and the Opik - Oort Cloud - could
be shaken if Another Star would come closer.
- Californian Congressman for Planet X Forsight - The Sky is Falling: the deadly threat posed by Near Earth Objects
and what we can do about it By Rep. Dana Rohrabacher...
- Stephen Hawking: "Asteroid Impacts Biggest Threat to Intelligent Life in the Galaxy...
- Military Hush-Up: Incoming Space Rocks Now Classified... EXPERTS CALL FOR GLOBAL NETWORK TO PREVENT ASTEROID DISASTERS:
http://cristiannegureanu.blogspot.com/2009/07/cbs-news-jupiter-hit-by-large-object.html

[John Woods]

Well seeing as Steven Hawking is the smartest man alive, I would tend to agree with him!

RT
www.online-privacy.tk

[T]

The Hawking Asteroid Theory? And here I thought that any 12 year old with a basic understanding of astronomy understood that asteroids are dangerous and capable of wiping out life on planets. So he comes up with a theory that is already common knowledge and suddenly we're all supposed to call it the "Hawking Asteroid Theory". Quit kissing that guy's ass for 5 minutes.

[King]

T: Maybe you should pucker up, as you clearly don't understand what the theory is about. Let me break it down for you. It's not about the fact that asteroids are generally bad news when they collide with planets. Hawking's idea is that the scarcity of life in the universe is in major part due to the frequency of catastrophic impacts (see: Schumaker-Levy, or the impact that destroyed the dinosaurs) wiping out any civilizations; this being part of the reason we've yet to trip across other intelligent life. We're simply lucky not to have been obliterated yet. This isn't about a Bruce Willis movie.

[Evil Merodach]

I'm sure that Hawkings wasn't the first to suggest this. In their book, "Rare Earth" (2000), Professors Ward and Brownlee suggest that having a Jupiter-sized planet between us and the Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud, may have contributed to the survival of complex life on our planet. Without Jupiter as a shield, Earth might very well be lifeless today except for microorganisms.

[ray]

Why we got to get all diss on the Sizzle Hawking? Just caus he don't got any decent shoes on his wheels giv ya the cause to be dissing on what ya wuz missing.

Plant X .. paaaalzzzzz.

[Geoff Perlman]

Hawking is a genius of course however, his assumption is that most solar systems have asteroid fields and that most do NOT have a large planet like Jupiter that can take most of the beating. That's a pretty big assumption with very little evidence to support it.

[Anton De Beer]

Ok so Hawking finaly understands the fact that "the scarcity of life in the universe is in major part due to the frequency of catastrophic impacts". Now he needs to consider the probabilty that over 5 million species, all inter twined and dependand on each other, accidentally appeared on the same planet.

[dirk alan]

( july 16 -22 1994 ) - ( july 19 2009 ) = 15 yrs. theory jupiter saves us every 15 yrs. by jove thanks.

[Caden]

Jupiter is by no means foolproof. Just take a look at the moon to see the crazy amounts of stuff that comes our way. The moon itself is probably the result of an impact event! Then there’s all those extinctions and the fact that mankind is nowhere near colonizing other worlds, mankind could easily go the way of billions of dinosaurs. Ironically we are just as easy to extinguish as clueless reptiles.

[Todd]

..."Hawking's idea is that the scarcity of life in the universe is in major part due to the frequency of catastrophic impacts "...

Why we always assume they are scarce? There are so many other plausible answers. Maybe they are already here? Maybe they use a totally unknown method to communicate, seeing how EM would be horribly inefficient for interstellar distance. We have only know about Radio and EM for 120 years or so. Why do people assume (once again) that what we Know is "all there is to know?".  I'm willing to bet there are many things in our universe and galaxy that are very different than what scientists THINK they are. Maybe alien life communicates with senses we don't even comprehend? Maybe they live on totally cloud shrouded planets and don't even know they are supposed to look up at the sky, let alone wonder if someone else exists out there?

There are a million ways to play this hand, but assuming we have all the answers is probably the worst way.

[Luis D Rey]

What do we know about Stephen Hawkins, except that he lives in a world totally unknown to us due to his illness,
Now, what does he know that we don't know about extraterrestrials?
No matter, as being a genius, still he is exposing/giving us his theories, assumptions and opinion,
He doesn't REALLY KNOW,
Remember:
"We only know that we don't know",
We are ALL very ignorant, very limited entities even those with PHD, MD, titles, etc.,

[ed]

Oh well the milky way is on collision course with andromeda anyway :D we're all doomed I tell ya!

[Deja]

Thank you, Jupiter, for taking one for the team.

[bumpy]

Is there always this much blather in the comments on this site?

Hawkings' HYPOTHESIS (it hardly merits the term "theory") about impacts and their relevance to the abundance of INTELLIGENT life in the universe is at least potentially testable, since there are some data on impacts. We at least know they do occur. So it would appear to qualify as a SCIENTIFIC hypothesis, worthy of a SCIENTIST. That much cannot be said of wild speculation about things of which we have no knowledge.

[bumpy]

An alternative to Hawking's hypothesis, if I may.

Mass extinctions, whether due to asteroid impacts or other causes, may actually be a prerequisite to the evolution of complex life forms, and intelligent life in particular. The improbability of intelligent life evolving would then be a consequence of the improbability of a series of mass extinctions severe enough but not too severe.

A well known example of this principle in action would be that mammals attained their present ascendancy only because of the mass extinction that did away with the dinosaurs. For a more speculative example, it has been suggested that multicellular life may have become important on Earth only because of the stresses imposed by the Snowball Earth events.