Hubble has trained its new camera on the atmospheric¹ disturbance² on Jupiter believed to have been caused by a comet or asteroid³ impact.

哈勃望远镜新装的摄像头观测到木星表面大气扰动，据估计可能受是彗星或者小行星影响。

calibrated⁴" width="466" border="0" src="/upimg/090725/4_065819_1.jpg" />
Dark disturbance: The WFC-3 has not yet been properly calibrated

The telescope used the Wide Field Camera 3 fitted on the recent shuttle servicing mission to capture ultra-sharp visible-light images of the scar.

The dark spot near the gas giant's southern pole was noticed first by an amateur（业余的） Australian astronomer⁵（天文学家）.

Some of the world's biggest telescopes have since taken detailed⁶ pictures.

Engineers at the US space agency, Nasa, interrupted the post-servicing commissioning of the refurbished（再磨光，刷新） Hubble to use the WFC-3.

"Because we believe this magnitude（重要，光度） of impact is rare, we are very fortunate to see it with Hubble," said Amy Simon-Miller of Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

"Details seen in the Hubble view show a lumpiness（块度） to the debris⁷（碎片，残骇） plume⁸（羽毛） caused by turbulence⁹（喧嚣，狂暴） in Jupiter's atmosphere."

The pictures augur¹⁰ well for（示吉兆） Hubble. Its servicing should give it several more years of life.

The WFC-3 will be used to take the deepest images of the cosmos¹¹ yet.

Astronomers¹² cannot be absolutely sure Jupiter was struck by a space object, but the evidence seems compelling. One estimate of the diameter of the impacting body suggests it may have been hundreds of metres wide.

"This is just one example of what Hubble's new, state-of-the-art camera can do, thanks to the [shuttle] astronauts and the entire Hubble team," said Ed Weiler, Nasa's chief scientist. "However, the best is yet to come."

It is 15 years since Jupiter was famously hit by Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. It broke up into several pieces as it plunged¹³ on to the gas giant. There was prior（更重要的，较早的） warning of that event and Hubble took some typically remarkable¹⁴ pictures on that occasion, too.