To the surprise of most astronomers, many of the fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 created huge dark clouds of sooty particles in Jupiter's atmosphere when they crashed into the planet one at a time between July 16 and 22, 1994. At least eight impact sites are visible in this HST image of Jupiter, taken on July 21.
The fragments and their impact sites were identified by the letters of the alphabet A, B, C, etc. In this image, the combined E and F sites are just visible on the left edge of the planet. The star-shaped H site is below and to the right of the Great Red Spot. Next comes a tiny dark spot marking the entry of fragment N, then the larger Q1 site, Q2 again small, R and at the far right, the complex created by impacts D and G.
The impacts all took place on the side of Jupiter facing away from Earth, but Jupiter's rotation carried the sites into view within a matter of minute, All were at a jovian latitude of about 47°S but the sites were scattered all around the 47°S latitude circle because of Jupiter's rotation. Some of the fragments crashed into places where previous impacts had already created dark clouds, resulting in very complex scars.
Soon, the high winds in Jupiter's atmosphere started to disperse the clouds. Six months after the impacts, very little evidence remained that they had taken place.
Camera: WFPC2
Technical Information: Exposures through
three color filters (blue, green and red) combined to create a color image.
Credit: HST Comet Team, and NASA
