Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9



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In July 1994 Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 entered Jupiter’s gravitational field and broke into 21 fragments. This computer animation shows some of the comet’s fragments entering Jupiter’s atmosphere. The resulting explosions produced fireballs larger than the earth. Jupiter’s fifth moon, Io, is in the foreground.

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Jupiter (planet); Hubble Space Telescope (HST); Solar System; Comet

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