“So the “burp” idea is IMHO iffy.”

I agree.

Neato eclipse of Enceladus, tho.

Are they testing CERN yet? It might be a spin off.

Mention of CERN and the LHC reminded me that National Geographic channel will have an episode of their “World’s Toughest Fixes” this Sunday (2nd) with a fix of a magnet on the LHC:

description of episode from web page (http[colon, double slash]channel[dot]nationalgeographic[dot]com/series/worlds-toughest-fixes/4221/Overview)
Sean faces one of his most spectacular fixes to date as he repairs a giant magnet at the Large Hadron Collider with success paving the way for scientific breakthrough, while failure means a potential catastrophe.

J/P=?

In the new research, Kaib and co-author Thomas Quinn, a UW astronomy professor and Kaib’s doctoral adviser, used computer models to simulate the evolution of comet clouds in the solar system for 1.2 billion years. They found that even outside the periods of comet showers, the inner Oort Cloud was a major source of long-period comets that eventually cross Earth’s path.

By assuming the inner Oort Cloud as the only source of long-period comets, they were able to estimate the highest possible number of comets in the inner Oort Cloud. The actual number is not known. But by using the maximum number possible, they determined that no more than two or three comets could have struck Earth during what is believed to be the most powerful comet shower of the last 500 million years.
[…]
He noted that the work assumes the area surrounding the solar system has remained relatively unchanged for the last 500 million years, but it is unclear whether that is really the case. It is clear, though, that Earth has benefitted from having Jupiter and Saturn standing guard like giant catchers mitts, deflecting or absorbing comets that might otherwise strike Earth.

“We show that Jupiter and Saturn are not perfect and some of the comets from the inner Oort Cloud are able to leak through. But most don’t,” Kaib said. [ScienceDaily]

@ TEL:

the anomaly’s appearance is approximately like that from the SL-9 impact.

And that is moreover on several wavelength bands, AFAIU. So the “burp” idea is IMHO iffy.

In that sense, you’re right: Jupiter does present a greater draw for wandering objects than Earth does because of its larger size and gravity, as you seem to understand.

Good question. That depends on what you mean by “dramatic”. Given the intruder’s kinetic energy at impact, Jupiter’s gravity may be largely irrelevant. That energy will go into its interaction with the larger body’s environment. In this case, the object of course plowed into Jupiter’s very deep atmosphere. Since that atmosphere is tremendously deeper than Earth’s, the object was subjected to intense aerodynamic forces for a much lengthier time than for Earth. All that energy eroded the object, wittling away to nothing but hot ashes, while blasting a huge hole in Jupiter’s clouds (as we see in this case).

But with the same kinetic energy, the impactor could plow right into Earth, and if so it would also be eroded by the cratering process (that is to say, something this energetic would be pulverized, sheared away layer by layer very rapidly; a much smaller, less energetic object can make it all the way to the ground mostly intact). A body such as what probably made the scar on Jupiter would do just as much overall damage to Earth, and would of course cause vastly more damage to us and to civilization!

I hope this question makes sense. Sentence structure is not a strong point with me when attempting to ask something scientific. /sigh