Another Day, Another Jupiter Impact.

Two in a row.  Unusual.  Space Weather, via The Extinction Protocol:

September 13, 2012 – SPACE - Around the world, amateur astronomers have been scanning the cloudtops of Jupiter for signs of debris from an explosion witnessed by Dan Peterson and George Hall on Sept. 10th. So far the cloud layer is blank. “Several observers have now obtained excellent images on the second and third rotations after the fireball, and there is nothing new nor distinctive at the impact site,” reports John H. Rogers, director of the Jupiter Section of the British Astronomical Association: The fireball was probably caused by a small asteroid or comet hitting Jupiter. Apparently, the giant planet swallowed the impactor whole. When fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit Jupiter in 1994, each major flash observed by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft produced a “bruise,” a murky mixture of incinerated comet dust and chemically altered Jovian gas twisting and swirling among the clouds. In July 2009, amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley discovered a similar mark thought to be debris from a rogue asteroid crashing into the planet. So where is the debris this time? Perhaps the impactor was small, packing just enough punch to make a flash, but without leaving much debris. Indeed, studies suggest that Jupiter is frequently struck by relatively small 10-meter-class asteroids. In such cases, minimal debris is to be expected. –Space Weather

Another visible big impact event, even if it was caused by a small asteroid.  If I were a bettin' man, I'd wager this is just the first indications of some pretty major changes, not only throughout the solar system, but here on earth.  Fore shocks.  Not that all the changes will be bad;  But all said, these changes, when they manifest, will be very dramatic to behold, and to comprehend.  Are you ready, or not?  Either way; They're coming..

Something Just Hit Jupiter. Something Big.

Fresh Jupiter impact may aid solar system census.  New Scientist.

A bright flash spotted early yesterday in Jupiter's swirling atmosphere was most likely due to a hit by a comet or asteroid, astronomers say. Although the impact is the fourth one seen in just over three years, the uptick does not mean Jupiter is getting hit more often, only that more people are looking.


"Jupiter has been taking hits like this for a long time," says Franck Marchis of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. "It's just that now, amateur astronomers have the capabilities to detect them."

With the speed of digital communication, the army of enthusiasts scanning the skies can connect with professional astronomers to follow up on an observation almost instantly.

Seeing real-time impacts and studying the scars left on Jupiter will give scientists unique windows into the gas giant's atmospheric properties. The events can also tell astronomers more about the impacting objects themselves, giving a better picture of the sizes and numbers of bodies swarming through the solar system.

"This is a remarkable tool for us professional astronomers," Marchis says. "We cannot observe Jupiter continuously. But now when something like this happens, we can see it."

And:

The recent spate of impacts highlights Jupiter's role as cosmic street sweeper, clearing up debris that might otherwise hit Earth, says Glenn Orton of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.


"Jupiter is a big gravitational vacuum cleaner," says Orton. "We qualitatively know that Jupiter's protecting the Earth. Without Jupiter we'd have a lot more impacts."

Thanks again, Jupiter, for being the Inner Solar System's goaltender.  Judging by the size of that explosion, not only do we appreciate you, our very survival might depend on your very being.  When you factor Jupiter's size to Earth, the big boom might have covered a significant majority of our planet.  See for yourself: