Komet Schukeyaker-Levi 9 was opened with spouses by Eugene and Carolina Sumykers (USA) and David Levi (Canada) in 1993. In July 1994, the comet became one of the most famous comets, since her decline to Jupiter was recorded by astronomers of many countries. It was the first observed case of a collision of two celestial bodies outside the Earth.
According to some information, before the comet collision was in the orbit of Jupiter for about 20 years, becoming his companion with a period of appeal around the planet 2 years. In 1992, the tidal forces of the gas giant crushed it into 21 separate fragments, dimensions up to 2 km in the diameter stretched by a chain of hundreds of thousands of kilometers. At the same time, each secondary core has become an independent comet with his head, a coma and tail. In this form, the comet for the first time and was noticed in 1993 its discovers.
In the period from July 16 to July 22, 1994, all comet fragments faced the southern hemispheres of Jupiter at speed, about 60 km / s, providing powerful perturbations of cloud cover. Some “scars” from falling remained for several months. The fall of the comet was predicted and observed both from the ground and from the space.
In July 2009, a new dark spot with a quiet ocean appeared in the southern hemisphere of Jupiter. Scientists suggested that another collision occurred, possibly with an unknown asteroid or comet.
So frequent drops for Jupiter Comet or asteroids forced scientists to once again revise the role of Jupiter as a “cosmic vacuum cleaner” for the inside of the solar system. According to some forecast estimates, collisions of comet or asteroids with Jupiter occur in 2000-8000 times more often than on Earth. According to a number of researchers, the planet with the dimensions and mass of Jupiter provides additional protection of the Earth from bombing by space objects.