From the Desk of Jim Green

In 1994, Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (SL-9) collided spectacularly with Jupiter, providing a first ringside view of an extraterrestrial collision with a planet. Once captured in orbit by Jupiter, SL-9 passed within Jupiter’s Roche limit, and the planet’s tidal forces acted to rip the comet apart into multiple pieces ranging up to 2 kilometers in diameter. These […]