Jupiter, Our Celestial Vacuum Cleaner

Well, it’s TRUE, in SO many words…

Mystery impact leaves Earth-size mark on Jupiter

An amateur astronomer in Australia noticed the new mark — seen through telescopes as a dark spot — on the planet early Monday and tipped off scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, who then confirmed it was the result of a new impact, NASA said.

It’s not clear what the object was that crashed into Jupiter’s poisonous atmosphere.

… Seeing an Earth-sized spot appear so tiny on Jupiter’s surface led to some to wonder Tuesday whether our planet might be in danger of a similar collision.

But Wesley said that shouldn’t be a concern because Jupiter functions almost like a celestial vacuum cleaner, sucking up any objects that would be of danger to Earth and its neighbors.

“Jupiter is doing a very good job in scooping up a lot of this material that’s still floating around in the solar system,” he said.

“It’s just got so much gravity as it swings around the outer part of the solar system, it can really pull in and swallow up many of the cometary objects and debris left over from the formation of the solar system.

“So it’s doing a good job in keeping us safe by cleaning out a lot of these bits and pieces.”

So Jupiter is this great big orange roomba, spinning around the Solar System and slurping up noxious debris. Cool. I always knew God had a plan. ;)

HT Ann Curry on Twitter.

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