High Energy Impact
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In July of 1994, Comet Shoemaker-Levy struck the planet Jupiter, depositing
7 × 1022 joules of energy, and incidentally giving rise to a series
of Hollywood movies in which our own planet is threatened by an impact
by a comet or asteroid. There is evidence that such an impact caused
the extinction of the dinosaurs. Left: Jupiter's gravitational force on the
near side of the comet was greater than on the far side, and this difference
in force tore up the comet into a string of fragments. Two separate
telescope images have been combined to create the illusion of a point of
view just behind the comet. (The colored fringes at the edges of Jupiter
are artifacts of the imaging system.) Top: A series of images of the plume
of superheated gas kicked up by the impact of one of the fragments. The
plume is about the size of North America. Bottom: An image after all the
impacts were over, showing the damage done. |
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