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Strange Image of Jupiter

-- | August 29, 2014

Question: I have a photo that looks like a comet impact on Jupiter! I took the photos on January 22, 2014 sometime between 2:25am and 2:45am EST. My best guess would be 2:33am EST. I posted my photos to YouTube. Please take a look at this photo slideshow, maybe you can tell what this is that I captured in my telescope! Thank You!! — Phil

Answer: The strange structure you see around Jupiter is very likely due to reflections in the optics of your camera and/or saturation of the CCD detector in your camera (assuming you were using a digital camera). Cameras quite often produce odd images of bright objects in the sky like this. For examples, see the Unexplained Celestial Observations section of this blog.

Jeff Mangum

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