All Eyepieces on Jupiter After a Big Impact

Astronomers were scrambling to get big telescopes turned to Jupiter (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/jupiter_planet/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier) on Tuesday to observe the remains of what looks like the biggest smashup in the solar system since fragments of the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into the planet in July 1994.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/science/space/22jupiter.html

OMG, they're just discovering this impact? We're doomed!

I wouldn't worry about it. Jupiter has the gravity to pull in all kinds of junk that passes through our solar system. I'll go out on a limb and say that is why it has so many quasi-moons. They need to worry less about Jupiter and more about the toilet on the International Space Station.

What's the deal with Helium 3? A lot of people have been talking about it being the new plutonium? I hear the ChiComs and Russians want to mine the moon for it?