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Discoveries > Comets IV

COMET SHOEMAKER-LEVY 9



Credit : F. Colas, J. Lecacheux, OMP/IMCCE/CNRS
Fall of SL9: 2 images made at 2 microns ​​at the Pic du Midi


Credit : F. Colas, J. Lecacheux, OMP/IMCCE/CNRS
Clouds from the impact in Jupiter's atmosphere


July 19, 1994, was the day of a catastrophe, the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit Jupiter, developing a considerable energy: a cloud of dust larger than the Earth itself floated in Jupiter's atmosphere for several months.


Opposite at the top, images in the infrared of the fall, and down, clouds of dust in Jupiter's atmosphere after the fall.





Here an animation simulating the approach of the comet to Jupiter.  .
Credit : NASA

Here, the films of the disaster made ​​in the infrared at Pic du Midi (105cm telescope): the fall of 18 July 1994  and of 19 July .