Last week something crashed into the great vacuum-cleaner of the solar system, Jupiter – and some guy managed to video it, so we know that it happened.

And the question on planetary-physicists collective minds is: why wasn’t a sodding great mushroom cloud generated?

Compare: Shoemaker-Levy 9 and the 2009 impact

In a Google Wave – which I have no idea whether I can link to – and with almost Adamsian eclat, the sage Gerard Van der Leun explained it to Charlie Martin:

Charles Martin: Jupiter’s Mysterious June 3rd Collision -Why Was There No Visible Impact Cloud?
Gerard Van der Leun: Why? Because Jupiter can suck it up and walk it off, that’s why.

“Because Jupiter can suck it up and walk it off” – too true; and it gives you a perspective of the difference in scale that means that which would seriously hamper life on Earth, is but a modest burp in Jupiter’s atmosphere.

[updated 2155pm to fix error and ambiguous linkage]