Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashes into Jupiter

Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was discovered in 1993 already torn into about 20 fragments by Jupiter's tides, in orbit around the planet. Between 16 and 22 July 1994 the pieces struck Jupiter's southern hemisphere one after another, leaving dark scars in the clouds larger than the Earth that were visible even in small telescopes. It was the first time that astronomers had watched an impact between two solar-system bodies. The event drew attention to the danger posed by comets and asteroids to Earth.

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