What was the Shoemaker-Levy 9?
Shoemaker-Levy 9 (SL9) was a comet that collided with Jupiter in 1994. The impact was one of the most monitored astronomical events of the century and was the largest collision ever observed between the two solar system objects. The high public visibility of the collision helped popularize the idea that the country was vulnerable to the impact of space. During the twentieth century, Jupiter's strong gravitational field was captured and entered the long, free orbit around Jupiter. Eight months before the cord-in July 1992, the comet passed so close to Jupiter that it was torn on the train of fragments. When the comet discovered Shoemakers and David Levy in March 1993, his special appearance meant it as unusual, and astronomers quickly found that it was on a collision course with Jupiter.
Fragments shoes were different in size, from several hundred meters (one hundred meters) through a mile (two kilometers) in diameter. They were assumed that they were colliding with Jupiter for five days, and althoughThe impacts would be on the side of Jupiter from Earth, many astronomers still watched the giant planet in the hope of seeing something. The Hubble Space Telescope, the Galileo spacecraft and the Rosat X -ray Observatory, all turned to Jupiter to see the consequences of collisions.
When the fragments of the comet began with a collision with Jupiter on July 16, 1994, the size and speed of the impact was created by large white hot fireballs that increased over Jupiter's limb and were seen from the Earth's telescopes. The fireballs were so hot that they shone for more than thirty seconds after the impact, and the explosions created huge dark spots in Jupiter's atmosphere that the visible months later was. The astronomers later analyzed the chemical composition of stains and hoped to gather information about the structure of Jupiter's atmosphere.
The excitement surrounding the impact has made it easier for people to seriously take the threat of an asteroid impact. Collisions like teNto, they are not unusual at all and take place on Jupiter about once every thousand years. The Voyager 2 even found long craters chains on the Jupiter months Callisto and Ganymede, probably caused by other broken comets. Although the impact on Earth is more rare due to the smaller size and weight of the Earth, in the past there has been catastrophic collisions, especially the impact on Chicxulub, which is expected to cause the extinction of dinosaur.