Another asteroid clobbers Jupiter (Video)

An irish amateur astronomer has captured brilliant footage of what is thought to be a comet or asteroid crashing into Jupiter.

John Mckeon posted a time-lapse video online which shows the moment of impact.

Mckeon was one of two people who captured the incredible scenes – the other being Austrian Gerrit Kernbauer.

He used his 11-inch backyard telescope to film the impact, and the video has been viewed almost 300,000 times.

Gerrit Kernbauer of Modling, Austria, also recorded video of the event using a Skywatcher Newton 200/1000 Telescope. Here’s a look at his video.

Astronomers say without amateur sky watchers recording their hobby — and without social media to spread their discoveries — these events might never be seen by the world.

This made him think about a similar incident that occurred when fragments of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet hammered Jupiter in 1994. That impact was observed by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft, as well as astronomers on Earth.

Agencies/Canadajournal