Picture of the day

Via the Bad Astronomy blog and NASA's HubbleSite, comes a look at a mysterious black spot on Jupiter that has healed itself up. The oddness? That to create that spot there would have had to have been AN EXPLOSION THE SIZE OF SEVERAL HUNDRED THOUSANDS NUCLEAR BOMBS!!!! KA-BOOM!!! NO one is really sure how it all happened though. Did an asteroid or comet hit it that we didn't see? Are the Jupitarians going through some sort of massive civil war? Did we launch a couple hundred thousand nukes at Jupiter just for shits and giggles?

OK, it was probably an asteroid, but if we didn't see it coming beforehand and aren't totally sure what happened... what's that bode for humanity, Earth, and any possible asteroid that comes hurtling at us? BRUCE WILLIS CAN'T SAVE US IN REAL LIFE! But there we are: space based fiery sky death could even be more sudden and unexpected than we previously thought. Sweet dreams! Just kidding, we'll definitely have killed ourselves off before any space rock gets a chance. Sweet dreams!

Click to embiggen.