Cosmic collisions on planets cause detectable optical flashes that range from
terrestrial shooting stars to bright fireballs. On June 3, 2010 a bolide in
Jupiter's atmosphere was simultaneously observed from the Earth by two amateur
astronomers observing Jupiter in red and blue wavelengths. The bolide appeared
as a flash of 2 s duration in video recording data of the planet. The analysis
of the light curve of the observations results in an estimated energy of the
impact of 0.9-4.0x10^{15} J which corresponds to a colliding body of 8-13 m
diameter assuming a mean density of 2 g cm^{-3}. Images acquired a few days
later by the Hubble Space Telescope and other large ground-based facilities did
not show any signature of aerosol debris, temperature or chemical composition
anomaly, confirming that the body was small and destroyed in Jupiter's upper
atmosphere. Several collisions of this size may happen on Jupiter on a yearly
basis. A systematic study of the impact rate and size of these bolides can
enable an empirical determination of the flux of meteoroids in Jupiter with
implications for the populations of small bodies in the outer Solar System and
may allow a better quantification of the threat of impacting bodies to Earth.
The serendipitous recording of this optical flash opens a new window in the
observation of Jupiter with small telescopes