Jupiter keeps getting hit with asteroids

[Brian G Turner]

The article begins with amateur footage of Jupiter being struck - then goes on to reveal a string of impacts against the King of the Planets that have been recorded over the past few years:
Jupiter Just Got Hit by a Comet or Asteroid ... Again (Video)

I remember all the buzz about Shoemacher-Levy - but I hadn't realised that Jupiter was being impacted so frequently.

Although it's long been mentioned that Jupiter protects the inner solar system, by serving as a shield in this way, my question would be as to where all these impacts originating from?

Does this mean our solar system is filled with loose-flying debris that has yet to settle into any clear orbit? Or is this all routine, and that Jupiter's huge size simply makes ordinary plantary impacts more obvious?

 

[Lex E. Darion]

My impression is that there is always space debris floating around from imploded planets etc. Isn't that how Earth was formed, by lots of 'bits' falling together and getting compressed due to gravity?

We're constantly being hit by meteors and are about 10,000 years overdue for an MEE (Mass Extinction Event) like the one that did for the dinos.

I'd never thought/heard about Jupiter being a buffer for us - quite like that idea It can't save us forever though - and won't. (Sorry, depressing thought - or not, depending on your opinions of humans)

 

[Ray McCarthy]

would be as to where all these impacts originating from?

Kuiper belt and Oort Cloud.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Kuiper belt and Oort Cloud.

That would suggest these are being regularly acted on by other bodies - else in a dynamic and unsettled state already. For a 4 billion year old system, I would have expected our existing planetary modelling to have assumed these were relatively static regions (although there are obviously problems with that).

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I would have expected our existing planetary modelling to have assumed these were relatively static

No, it gets very complex.
Recent example
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150603130447.htm

Then the interaction of object on VERY long orbits, means the change is huge multiple. e.g. the hypothetical planet 9. Even Pluto has a pretty weird orbit compared to the rest of the solar system.

Short-period comets take less than 200 years, and long-period comets take over 200 years, with some taking 100,000 to 1 million years to orbit the Sun. The short-period comets are found near the ecliptic, which means they are orbiting the Sun in same plane as the planets. The short-period comets are thought to originate in the Kuiper Belt, an area outside Neptune's orbit (from about 30 to 50 AU) that has many icy comet-like objects. The long-period comets tend to have orbits that are randomly oriented, and not necessarily anywhere near the ecliptic. They are thought to originate in the Oort cloud.

Comets, the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud
The Oort Cloud is about 1000 x further away than Trans-Neptunium objects. Very long orbits indeed.
I think the majority of short-period comets are within the orbit of Jupiter.

 

[Ajid]

Although Juipiter can be a buffer it can also deflect astroids and comets into an orbit that may intersect that of the earths. A protector sometimes, but it could also be a killer.

 

[WaylanderToo]

my question would be as to where all these impacts originating from?

best research puts it as below...

 

[Mirannan]

The article begins with amateur footage of Jupiter being struck - then goes on to reveal a string of impacts against the King of the Planets that have been recorded over the past few years:
Jupiter Just Got Hit by a Comet or Asteroid ... Again (Video)

I remember all the buzz about Shoemacher-Levy - but I hadn't realised that Jupiter was being impacted so frequently.

Although it's long been mentioned that Jupiter protects the inner solar system, by serving as a shield in this way, my question would be as to where all these impacts originating from?

Does this mean our solar system is filled with loose-flying debris that has yet to settle into any clear orbit? Or is this all routine, and that Jupiter's huge size simply makes ordinary plantary impacts more obvious?

Jupiter's size would make an impact with an object of a given size more impressive than an impact with any other planet (particularly the terrestrials other than Earth) because the energy is higher.

Impact of any small body with a planet occurs at a minimum velocity which is the same as the escape velocity for that planet. For Jupiter, that figure is about 60km/sec (135,000mph); roughly 9 times higher than Earth, so impact energy would be roughly 80 times higher.

All that means a relatively small object would make a big bang.