Saturn may have just taken a historic hit - and someone caught it on camera

NASA's Mario Rana spied a bright flash on Saturn last week over the weekend, marking the first time astronomers have spotted an object slamming into Saturn in real-time.

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The volunteer astronomer at NASA's Planetary Virtual Observatory and Laboratory (PVOL) was using the telescope to image Saturn when they reported seeing a bright flash of light at around 09:00 UTC. As soon as the flash was detected, Rana put out the word to the astronomy community to see if anyone else saw what they just saw, specifically for more images or footage of the event.

Notably, Saturn, being a gas giant, doesn't exhibit any craters or scars from astronomical collisions such as this, making it hard to determine the size of the object or even if the event took place. Saturn's turbulent atmosphere of hydrogen and helium essentially swallows any evidence of a collision, with any remaining evidence being quickly swirled around in the thick outer layers of the planet. For this reason, it's remarkable that seemingly an object was caught slamming into the planet in real-time.

Before any celebrations can take place, the event needs to be confirmed by the astronomy community, hence the call for any corroborating footage of the collision. If confirmed, it would mark the first time an object has been caught colliding with Saturn in real-time.

With multiple angles of observation, astronomers will be able to rule out if the flash was an anomaly with the telescope, better determine the size of the object, and triangulate what region of the planet was impacted.