July 8, 2022
On this date in 1992, comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 made its closest approach to Jupiter – 74,364 mi (119,677 km) from the surface. The comet wasn’t discovered until 1993, but calculations show that as it passed by in July of 1992, Jupiter’s tidal forces had pulled the comet apart. The fragments of Shoemaker-Levy 9 – 21 pieces in total – collided with Jupiter between July 16 and 22, 1994 creating large dark spots in the planet’s atmosphere.
Top: A Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, taken on May 17, 1994. These 21 fragments of the comet spanned across a distance 3 times greater than the distance between the Earth and the Moon. Bottom left: HST image of Jupiter showing 8 visible impact sites. Bottom right: HST image of Jupiter showing the impact site of a fragment of comet that was approximately 3280 ft (1km) in diameter. Image credits top: NASA/ESA/H. Weaver and E. Smith (STScI), bottom left: HST Comet Team/NASA, bottom right: HST Jupiter Imaging Team
