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Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (formally designated D/1993 F2) was so-named because it was the ninth short-period comet discovered by Carolyn and Eugene M. Shoemaker and David Levy. It was first detected in a photograph taken on the night of March 24, 1993 with the 0.4-meter Schmidt telescope at the Mount Palomar Observatory in California, and subsequently observed by many other astronomers. It was the first comet observed while it was orbiting a planet rather than the Sun. The comet was also unusual because it was in fragments (ranging in size up to 2km in diameter), evidently due to a close encounter with the planet Jupiter in July 1992. It is thought to have been pulled apart by tidal forces when it approached closer than its Roche limitThe Roche limit is the distance within which a celestial body held together only by its own gravity will disintegrate due to a second celestial body's tidal forces exceeding the first body's gravitational self-attraction. Inside the Roche limit, orbiting.

During the period July 16July 16 is the 197th day (198th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 168 days remaining. Events 622 Beginning of the Islamic calendar. 1769 First performance of Mozart's opera The Abduction from the Seraglio. 1769 Father Junipero Ser – July 22July 22 is the 203rd day (204th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 162 days remaining. Events 1499 Battle of Dornach The Swiss decisively defeat the Imperial army of Emperor Maximilian I. 1587 Colony of Roanoke: A second group of E 1994, over twenty fragments of the comet collided with Jupiter's southern hemisphere at 60 kilometers (37 miles) per second, providing the first direct observation of the collision of two solar systemA generic solar system (or planetary system consists of at least one star and various orbiting objects (such as asteroids, comets, moons, and planets). The term originated to describe the planetary system around Sol, the Latin name for our sun. The planet objects. The collision resulted in disruptions in Jupiter's atmosphere, such as plumes and bubbles of gas, and dark spots in the atmosphere which remained visible for several days.

The event was closely observed and recorded by astronomerAn astronomer or astrophysicist is a scientist whose area of research is astronomy or astrophysics. Henrietta Swan Leavitt discovered the relationship between the luminosty and periodicity of variable stars in the Magellanic Clouds. Historians often argues worldwide, because of its tremendous scientific importance. The event also had a large amount of coverage in the popular media (unusual for an astronomical event), probably in part due to the fascination with the possibility of comet impacts with Earth.

The largest impact was caused by Fragment G, at 7:32am (UTC) on 18 July. This released energy estimated to be the equivalent of six million megatonA megaton (symbol MT or Mt is 1,000,000 tons, i. It is also used as a unit of energy, approximately equivalent to the energy released in the detonation of this amount of TNT. A kiloton is one-thousandth of a megaton approximately equivalent to 1,000 tonss of TNTTrinitrotoluene TNT is a pale yellow crystalline aromatic hydrocarbon compound that melts at 354 K (178 °F). Trinitrotoluene is an explosive chemical and a part of many explosive mixtures, such as when mixed with ammonium nitrate to form amatol. It is pre (the total estimated for all the impacts is forty million megatons). The mark left as a result of this was greater than the diameter of the Earth.

The event brought to the fore Jupiter's role in sweeping the inner solar system free of debris, which is thought to be a prerequisite for unbroken development of life. It also served as a dramatic example of the role played by the Interplanetary SuperhighwayThe Interplanetary Superhighway is a specific set of transfer orbits between various planets in the solar system. They have particularly low delta-v requirements, and appear to be the lowest energy transfers, even lower than the common Hohmann transfer or in solar system dynamics.