Yet another object has collided with the planet Jupiter, exactly 15 years to the day after the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet hit the planet and 40 years after man landed on the moon.

Tipped off by Australian amateur astronomer, Anthony Wesley of Murrumbateman near Canberra, Scientists at NASA’s JPL Labs in Pasadena, California have confirmed that a new dark spot had indeed on Jupiter and is likely to have been caused by the impact of an asteroid or comet. Infrared images show the impact point was near the planets south polar region, with a dark “scar” visible.

The odds that such an impact would happen on the anniversary of the Shoemaker Levy9 comet impact are astronomically slim as was the odds on catching it by accident. According to a NASA scientist who confirmed Wesley’s discovery, it was a matter of luckily catching Jupiter at exactly the right time, with the right side of Jupiter visible.

Whilst scientists have yet to confirm the exact nature of the object that impacted with Jupiter, they have been able  to confirm that the impact scar is massive and is about the size of the entire planet Earth.

The collision also demonstrates Jupiter’s role as the solar systems vacuum cleaner. Thanks to its massive size and the tremendous gravitational pull it exerts Jupiter frequently hoovers up stray space debris before they make their way into the inner solar system. This is definitely a good thing as any object the size of what hit Jupiter impacting with the Earth would be likely to cause the mass extinction of all life.

Documenting these sorts of impacts with the outer planets generates considerable excitement amongst cosmologists and Astronomers as it frequently gives insight into what planets such as Jupiter are made of, thanks to the debris thrown up by the impact that are otherwise under normal conditions when observing the planets through a telescope.