Implications of a cometary collision with the planet Jupiter.
Abstract
Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 was unusual for two reasons. First, while making a close pass of the planet Jupiter, it split into approximately 21 fragments. Second, it was shown that those fragments were in orbits heading toward multiple collisions with that planet. That single collisional event has shown what could happen to the Earth and other Solar-System bodies under similar circumstances, at any time.
- Publication:
-
Journal of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers, the Strolling Astronomer
- Pub Date:
- January 1996
- Bibcode:
- 1996JALPO..38..153W
- Keywords:
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- Comets: Collisions;
- Planets: Impacts