Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy's Collision with Jupiter: Covering HST's Planned Observations from Your Planetarium
Abstract: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (1993e) was discovered in March 1993. Early ground-based observations indicated the comet had fragmented into several pieces. The comet is in a highly inclined, elliptical orbit around Jupiter. P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 was tidally ripped apart during peri-Jove in July 1992. The Hubble Space Telescope has provided the most detailed look to date and resolved 20 separate nuclei. The nuclei are expected to slam into Jupiter over a five-day period beginning on 16 July 1994. The total energy of the collisions will be equivalent to 100 million megatons of TNT (more than 10,000 times the total destructive power of the world's nuclear arsenal at the height of the Cold War). An armada of spacecraft will observe the event: Voyager 2, Galileo, IUE, Ulysses, and the Hubble Space Telescope. HST will be the astronomical instrument of choice to observe P/SL9, and the after effects of the energy imparted into the Jovian atmosphere. ...