Amateur astronomer discovers Jupiter collision

Jupiter's moon, Ganymede, sits behind the solar system's largest planet, April 2007. Ganymede completes an orbit around Jupiter every seven days. (NASA: ESA/E Karkoschka (University of Arizona), fileman)

An amateur astronomer from the small village of Murrumbateman, north of Canberra, has made a rare discovery that has NASA scientists excited.

Computer programmer Anthony Wesley captured images showing a massive comet or asteroid had collided with the planet Jupiter.

Mr Wesley made the discovery in the early hours of yesterday morning using a telescope in his backyard.

He says he immediately realised its significance.

"By two o'clock I'd come back up to the house and was sending alerts to all the people I could think of that should be looking at this and especially the professional astronomers with specialised instrument for measuring this," he said.

"The sooner they could see this the more interesting and more useful science they can get from it."

His discovery has been confirmed by NASA and has caught the attention of astronomers around the world.

Mr Wesley says it is only the second time such a discovery has been made.

"There was pretty much widespread excitement as soon as everybody realised that another one of these impact has happened," he said.

"It's a dream really for anyone who takes photographs of the planets and photographs of Jupiter to take a photograph of this type, really it's a dream come true for me."