neat!

Yes. Jupiter's size means that it creates its own gravity well which acts as a shield to planets closer to the Sun by attracting in many of the random comets, asteroids and other junk not specifically tied to an orbit.

It makes you realize just how precious life is.

fascinating. . wouldn't it be neat if we had a probe
out there to see such a thing! -- j
.

I've read papers on Jupiter like planets being necessary for other planets in a system to sustain life...it's a parameter they consider now.

Marvelous! I worked as a professional astronomer for over 20 years and was never fortunate enough to observe something like this. Very nice work and excellent multiple confirmations.

I was wondering about what you call no evidence of a "cloud-hole-punch." Believe it was a comet that made one of those and I was fascinated by that.
I doubt life can form in any solar system that lacks a giant gas bag to suck in a lion's share of space debris.

Pretty good from an amateur but it probably was not the result of an asteroid...Jupiter has a tendency to atmospherically flare up like that; there is no evidence of a "cloud-hole-punch" from the last two observed: 2012 and this mar 17 2016.
I remember seeing one many years ago, you could see the cloud hole and it's resulting surface response...these last two didn't show anything like that.

Thanks to Jupiter! Wouldn't want to see the effect of that coming closer to us.

Cool vid.

Astronomy has traditionally been a study that was advanced by the work of amateurs. Professionals did not exist before the 19th century, and even in our time are not employed in great numbers. John Flamsteed was the British Astronomer Royal in 1675. That is not the same thing as answering an adverstisement for "Help Wanted - Astronomer". Mostly, they worked for governments and universities or government universities. The US Naval Observatory (founded 1825) is an example, easily.

Amateur astronomers record many events that professionals miss. Telescope time is competitive; research topics are limited; sites are scarce; weather does not co-operate. Amateurs are globally arrayed and work with their own equipment on their own time. They capture images that professional miss. Put "International Year of Astronomy" in your search engine.

"Forty volunteers with the crowd-sourcing Planet Hunters project discovered the new planet candidates, which include 15 potentially habitable worlds and PH2 b, a Jupiter-size planet that the team confirmed to be in the habitable zone of its parent star." -- http://www.nbcnews.com/id/50449282/ns...

I just imagine people of the future having a way to get a decent number of people up close to something like this with a reasonable about of space and protection from Jupiter's radiation belts. They're going to be a situation new to humankind that will lead to completely new ways of doing things, like Europeans coming to the Americas.