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Jupiter/comet Collision
Name: marguerite a smith
Status: N/A
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 1993 - 1999
Question:
I am a high school junior in California. I am participating in a
presentation on Wednesday, January 12. Please respond to the following question
either today or before 8 AM tomorrow. Thank you.
What are the predicted results of the collision of the comet with Jupiter?
Replies:
From the online Readers' Guide abstracts:
SOURCE: Astronomy magazine Sept. '93, p. 18+
ABSTRACT: The fragments of Comet 1993e, also called Periodic Comet
Shoemaker-Levy 9, are expected to strike Jupiter on July 22, 1994. The comet
evidently broke up during a close encounter with Jupiter's powerful gravity
field in July 1992. Its fragments, the largest of which has an estimated
diameter of about 10 kilometers, appear to be orbiting the giant planet. Experts predict that the anticipated
collisions will release a formidable amount of energy, equivalent to the
explosion of several million megatons of TNT. Astronomers may not see the
flashes caused by the impacts, which are expected to occur on Jupiter's dark sid e, but they might observe a
brightening of Jupiter's moons or an abnormally bright equatorial cloud zone
caused by the upwelling of ammonia ice into the planet's upper atmosphere.
See also the answer to #60 in the Astronomy Archives. You might also check the
most recent issues of Astronomy and Sky & Telescope magazines; the January
issues typically describe events for the coming year. I probably won't have time
to check them before your deadline.
Unknown
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Update: June 2012
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