Context. Video observations of Jupiter obtained by amateur astronomers over the past eight years have shown five flashes of light with durations of 1-2 s. The first three of these events occurred on 3 . Previous analyses of their light curves showed that they were caused by the impact of objects of 5-20 m in diameter, depending on their density, with a released energy comparable to superbolides on Earth of the class of the Chelyabinsk airburst. The most recent two flashes on Jupiter were detected on 17 March 2016 and 26 May 2017 and are analyzed here. Aims. We characterize the energy involved together with the masses and sizes of the objects that produced these flashes. The rate of similar impacts on Jupiter provides improved constraints on the total flux of impacts on the planet, which can be compared to the amount of exogenic species detected in the upper atmosphere of Jupiter. Methods. We extracted light curves of the flashes and calculated the masses and sizes of the impacting objects after calibrating each video observation. An examination of the number of amateur observations of Jupiter as a function of time over the past years allows us to interpret the statistics of these impact detections.Results. The cumulative flux of small objects (5-20 m or larger) that impact Jupiter is predicted to be low (10-65 impacts per year), and only a fraction of them are potentially observable from Earth (4-25 per year in a perfect survey). Conclusions. We predict that more impacts will be found in the next years, with Jupiter opposition displaced toward summer in the northern hemisphere where most amateur astronomers observe. Objects of this size contribute negligibly to the abundance of exogenous species and dust in the stratosphere of Jupiter when compared with the continuous flux from interplanetary dust particles punctuated by giant impacts. Flashes of a high enough brightness (comparable at their peak to a +3.3 magnitude star) could produce an observable debris field on the planet. We estimate that a continuous search for these impacts might find these events once every 0.4 to 2.6 years.
Authors Suppressed Due to Excessive Length characterization of asteroids and comets, as well as the determination of the physical properties of Kuiper Belt Objects and exoplanets are discussed.
We report Venus image observations around the two maximum elongations of the planet at June and October 2015. From these images we describe the global atmospheric dynamics and cloud morphology in the planet before the arrival of JAXA's Akatsuki mission on December the 7 th . The majority of the images were acquired at ultraviolet wavelengths (380-410 nm) using small telescopes. The Venus dayside was also observed with narrow band filters at other wavelengths (890 nm, 725-950 nm, 1.435 μm CO 2 band) using the instrument PlanetCam-UPV/EHU at the 2.2m telescope in Calar Alto Observatory. In all cases, the lucky imaging methodology was used to improve the spatial resolution of the images over the atmospheric seeing. During the April-June period, the morphology of the upper cloud showed an irregular and chaotic texture with a well developed equatorial dark belt (afternoon hemisphere), whereas during October-December the dynamical regime was dominated by planetary-scale waves (Yhorizontal, C-reversed and ψ-horizontal features) formed by long streaks, and banding suggesting more stable conditions. Measurements of the zonal wind velocity with cloud tracking in the latitude range from 50ºN to 50ºS shows agreement with retrievals from previous works.
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