Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 "Gang Of Four
In July 1994, 21 chunks of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which had broken apart a year earlier, slammed into Jupiter. The Hubble telescope recorded this spectacular event. In this image, taken in 1994, Hubble captures the fractured comet itself as a 'string of pearls'
This is a composite HST image taken in visible light showing thetemporal evolution of the brightest region of comet P/Shoemaker-Levy9. In this false-color representation, different shades of redcolor are used to display different intensities of light.
[top panel] - This shows data taken on 1 July 1993, prior to theHST servicing mission. The separation of the two brightestfragments is only 0.3", so ground-based telescopes could not resolvethis pair. The other two fragments just to the right of theclosely-spaced pair are only barely detectable due to HST'sspherical aberration.
Credit:
About the Image
NASA caption
| Id: | opo9421a |
| Type: | Observation |
| Release date: | 18 May 1994, 06:00 |
| Size: | 332 x 724 px |
About the Object
| Name: | Shoemaker-Levy 9 |
| Type: | • Solar System : Interplanetary Body : Comet • Solar System Images/Videos |
Colours & filters
| Band | Telescope |
| Optical R |
Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 |
