In March of 1993 comet Shoemaker-Levy (S-L 9) was discovered and photographed. Observation of the comet predicted that it would collide with Jupiter in the summer of 1994. Comet S-L 9 was composed of several small pieces traveling together. This series of photographs shows one of those fragments, “G”, on a collision course with Jupiter. The image was taken using near infrared equipment.
Tom Herbst, Kurt Birkle, Ulrich Thiele, Max Planck Institut fuer Astronomie (Heidelberg, Germany), Doug Hamilton, Max Planck Institut fuer Kernphysik (Heidelberg, Germany), Hermann Boehnhardt, Alex Fiedler, Karl-Heinz Mantel, Universitaets-Sternwarte