Both Touched By Something

I’m not ignoring
the impact on Jupiter
from two weeks ago.

Twice in history
since Galileo first looked
only twice in that

four hundred year span
humans have chanced to observe
pieces of something

impact Jupiter.
Comet Shoemaker-Levy
fifteen years ago

went to pieces and
those pieces hit Jupiter
while mankind observed.

And two weeks ago
a chunk of something maybe
a thousand feet wide

disintegrated
in Jupiter’s atmosphere
made a debris field

thousands of miles wide
darkening Jupiter’s clouds.
Even amateurs

with small telescopes
although not as small as mine
can see the debris.

The discovery
was made by an amateur
who saw the dark clouds.

Even the Hubble
is looking now. I am not
ignoring the crash

even though I can’t
see it with my telescopes.
In the late evening

Jupiter rises
in the sky and in my thoughts
both touched by something.

Clouds are swirling there
and there is a debris field
across my thoughts here.

Darkness in the clouds
on Jupiter and darkness
in my thoughts on Earth

both touched by something
both needing further study
both still unfolding.

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The Impact on Jupiter! — Sky & Telescope

All Eyes on Jupiter — Leigh Fletcher JPL Blog

Hubble Captures Rare Jupiter Collision — HubbleSite