enlarge Anthony Wesley photo

The black mark in Jupiter’s south polar region (at top in this photo) is believed to have been caused by a comet or asteroid more than a mile long that crashed into the planet.

enlarge Courtesy NASA

This rough visual comparison shows Earth and Jupiter, which is 1,321 times the size of Earth, and Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, site of a huge storm.

So you think the weather is spoiling your view of Maine's scenic coastline? Try sneaking a peek at outer space.

"We absolutely want to see it," said Ron Burk of Wells, president of the Astronomical Society of Northern New England. "This kind of thing excites people – it makes people think about all the things that are flying around out there."

He's talking about the latest news from Jupiter: Sometime last weekend, the solar system's fifth and largest planet got walloped by a comet or asteroid estimated at 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) long, creating an impact area the size of the Pacific Ocean near Jupiter's south pole.

That, at least for an astronomer, is huge. In fact, it's the kind of event that has amateur space watchers the world over turning their telescopes toward Jupiter to witness the "storm" from the impact as it now spreads through the planet's hazy atmosphere.

It also would provide a major draw to the monthly stargazing party this evening at the astronomical society's open-air observatory in Kennebunk – if not for one thing.

It's supposed to rain.

"The forecast is looking pretty poor," a disappointed Burk said Thursday. Hence, he said, a chance to view the wreckage on Jupiter – or at least the large black spot indicating that all hell just broke loose – "is not very likely."

Still, clouds or no clouds, the Jupiter strike is a wake-up call to anyone who pooh-pooh's the idea that the same thing could happen – with very little warning – here on Earth.

Since NASA and an army of amateur astronomers first teamed up in the mid-1990s to take a hard look at what exactly is going on out there in space, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has logged more than 6,200 "near-Earth objects" careening past our planetary front porch.

And of those, 1,067 currently are classified as "potentially hazardous" – meaning they're more than 500 feet in diameter and pass within 4.65 million miles of Earth.

"And those are just the ones we know about," said Burk.

Just the ones we know about? Meaning ... gulp ... you guys with your whiz-bang, computer-assisted telescopes aren't already tracking them all?

"Oh, no," Burk replied. "Not by a long shot. There are surveys going on all the time, but the sky is pretty big. It's still a question of where you're pointing the telescope."

Great. While we fret about health care reform, racial profiling by police, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and whatever else crashes into our 24-hour news cycle, a chunk of rock the size of Peaks Island could be hurtling toward us at this very moment. How's that for putting things in, shall we say, a slightly different perspective?

Had the Earth taken the shot Jupiter just did, Burk said, "There's no question it would have been life-threatening."

Try not to obsess – at least not yet. According to Burk, we earthlings actually have a couple of things working in our favor.

For starters, he noted, Jupiter's gargantuan gravitational pull actually helps protect the inner planets by sucking in flying objects before they get too close to us. (Tell that to the dinosaurs, who could have used a heads-up before a truly massive asteroid slammed into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula 65 million years ago.)

What's more, Burk said, the ever-growing number of amateur astronomers constantly looking skyward these days – the Astronomical Society of Northern New England boasts three dozen enthusiasts throughout southern Maine and New Hampshire – greatly enhances the odds of seeing something headed our way.

The Jupiter strike, for example, was discovered by Australian Anthony Wesley, who was about to shut down the telescope outside his home Monday evening (again, bad weather) when he instead took a half-hour break, came back, peered into his eyepiece and ......