How was Jupiter affected by the impact of the SL-9 comet?
The impact of the cometary fragments created fireballs which died down approximately 10 minutes after they formed according to observations by ground and space-based telescopes. About 30 minutes after the fireballs were formed, they turned into big dark clouds, “dark spots” and were easily visible with ground-based telescopes. The major structures were still visible several months later. However, there were no long-term effects on Jupiter due to the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact. It would have been a different story if the impact was with the Earth! Galileo’s observations of SL-9 provided key information regarding the initial impacts, including the duration, size, and temperature of the fireballs, and also of the splash-back phase, when material flung into space by the impacts fell back into the planet’s atmosphere.
