This is the third time in only 13 months that amateur astronomers have detected signs of impact on the planet Jupiter. The earlier events occured on July 19, 2009, and June 3, 2010. Jupiter is getting hit more often than conventional wisdom would suggest, leading many researchers to call for a global network of telescopes to monitor Jupiter 24/7 and measure the impact rate. 

On August 20th at 18:22 UT, amateur astronomer Masayuki Tachikawa of Kumamoto city, Japan, video-recorded an apparent impact on Jupiter. A confirming image of the August 20th fireball has just surfaced. Tokyo amateur astronomer Aoki Kazuo recorded a flash at the same time and place on Jupiter as Masayuki Tachikawa of Kumamoto city did. (Tachikawa was first to report the fireball, as described below.) The ~800 km separation of the two observers rules out an event near Earth and reinforces the association of the flash with Jupiter.

 * The yellow arrow points to a white dot which was the fireball produced at the impact site.

Photo credit: Masayuki Tachikawa.