in mid-july major telescopes on earth
and in space will be trained on planet
Jupiter for an encounter that could be
one of the most significant astronomical
events in history a string of over 20
ice and dust fragments from an ancient
comet will plummet into Jupiter causing
massive explosions geologist Eugene
shoemaker astronomer Carolyn shoemaker
and amateur astronomer David Levy found
the comet in March 1993 during a survey
of the sky at Mount Palomar Observatory
no one is quite sure what effect the
comet's impact will have on the planet
an immense globe of gas a thousand times
larger than the earth well the $64
question is how big are the fragments at
one point some months ago we thought the
largest might be about three maybe even
four kilometers across if they were that
large then altogether these comets would
deliver about a hundred million megatons
of energy computer simulations of the
impacts effect on Jupiter have been made
by astronomers at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology during the six
days of bombardment major observatories
of the world hope to study the event the
impact sites will occur on the opposite
side of Jupiter away from Earth's view
the Galileo spacecraft now enroute to
Jupiter will view the event head-on
eventually sending back images whether
the event goes off with a bang or a
whimper few astronomers will miss this
cosmic event of a lifetime
in mid-july major telescopes on earth
and in space will be trained on planet
Jupiter for an encounter that could be
one of the most significant astronomical
events in history a string of over 20
ice and dust fragments from an ancient
comet will plummet into Jupiter causing
massive explosions it's the first time
ever that we've seen a comma captured in
orbit around Jupiter and it's the first
time ever we'll actually be able to
predict an impact
geologist Eugene shoemaker astronomer
Carolyn shoemaker an amateur astronomer
David Levy found the comet at the end of
March 1993 so lovely day from their
perch atop Mount Palomar in Southern
California big monitors night sky using
a 60 year old eighteen inch telescope
the vintage instrument has perfect
properties for spotting fast-moving
objects it is actually a camera
exposures of eight minutes are used for
each picture the field of view takes in
the mind of the normal portion of the
sky making it an ideal response okay
does that look right yes discovery high
clouds threatened to cancel their
efforts prospects didn't look good but
David Levy suggested that they continue
using damaged film that would have been
thrown away that decision paid off we
knew we had something very unusual it
was so unusual we were a little unsure
just what we were dealing with so I
started to scan it and Jupiter was a big
overexposed looking blob on one side I
started at the top and across and down
and then as I moved across about a
little more than halfway down I suddenly
thought I saw something Carolyn used a
stereo microscope to look at two
pictures taken 40 minutes apart of the
exact same location as he viewed the
images simultaneously everything looked
flat except fast-moving objects like
asteroids or comets they appeared to
float I turned to the others and I I
said I don't know what I've got it looks
like a squashed comet the squashed comet
turned out to be a chain of fragments
they were formed when Jupiter's immense
gravitational force pulled the comet
apart as it passed by the giant planet
Nance's newly repaired Hubble Space
Telescope took these images of the comet
it's powerful mirrors bringing each
fragment into sharp focus
well the $64 question is how big are the
fragments at one point some months ago
we thought the largest fragments might
be about three maybe even four
kilometers across about two and a up to
two and a half miles in diameter if they
were that large then altogether these
comets would deliver about a hundred
million megatons of energy but no one is
quite sure what effect the impacts will
have on the planet an immense globe of
gas a thousand times larger than the
earth
Timothy Dowling and Joe Harrington of
the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology have developed a computer
model that shows the effect of the
Comets impact on Jupiter's atmosphere
the comet pieces will plunge down
underneath the clouds these beautiful
ammonia clouds that are on the surface
and finally just give up and explode and
all of that hot heated gas will rise up
and then it'll fall back down and you'll
get just like throwing a rock into a
pond you won't get this big splash and
then the slower ripple during the six
days of bombardment major observatories
of the world hope to study the event the
impact sites will occur on the opposite
side of Jupiter away from Earth's view
scientists hope to see after effects of
the impacts or flashes of light
reflected on to Jupiter's nearby moons
the Galileo spacecraft now and route to
Jupiter will view the event head-on
eventually sending back images it will
be an unprecedented opportunity to learn
about the planets weather patterns
Joe Harrington believes the explosions
could trigger storm systems in normally
stable areas if the pieces are big
enough to produce any kind of observable
effect at all anything that makes the
planet look different from the way it
looks today
will learn something and the more
changes the more we'll learn in fact
there are valuable lessons in store for
our own planet there are a lot of people
that believe that an impact about the
size of the combined comet train is what
killed off the dinosaurs gene shoemaker
has long supported the theory that comet
material landed some 4.5 billion years
ago and delivered life's essential
ingredients to earth in essence I think
we're the progeny of comet's comets
arriving early in the history of the
solar system delivered the volatile
material come july 16 damager and
professional astronomers alike will
train their telescopes on jupiter
whether the event goes off with a bang
or a whimper few astronomers will miss
this cosmic event of a lifetime
we knew he had something very unusual it
was so unusual we were a little unsure
just what we were dealing with
we were pretty stacked up and when I
looked at it I realized that what I saw
was a bar and this bar had coma and
Tails and I that was um it's unspeakably
weird you just don't find something like
that when you're looking for either
asteroids or comets and nothing no yes
but comet pieces will plunge down
underneath the clouds these beautiful
ammonia clouds that are on the surface
plunge down underneath and finally just
give up and explode and all of that hot
heated gas will rise up and then it'll
fall back down and you'll get just like
throwing a rock into a pond you won't
get this big splash and then the slower
Ripple