Meteor Caused Jupiter Flash, Hubble Reveals
The Hubble telescope has not found a dark debris field, suggesting a smaller meteor and not a large asteroid or comet hit Jupiter.
The Hubble found no trace of a dark debris field following the distinctive burst, which appeared for two seconds on June 3 and was spotted separately in videos taken by amateur astronomers Anthony Wesley of Australia and Christopher Go of the Philippines.
Astronomers suspected that a large meteor or comet had hit the gas giant, based on the fact that the Earth-size fireball was visible through backyard telescopes more than 470 million miles (770 million kilometers) away.
To investigate the size of the impact, Hubble's ultraviolet and visible-wavelength cameras were called into action three days after the blast. However, they found no telltale black smudges,
