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Month Long Evolution of the D/G Jupiter Impact Sites from Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9


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This series of snapshots, taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, shows evolution of the comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact region called the D/G complex. This feature was produced by two nuclei of comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 that collided with Jupiter on 17 and 18 July 1994, respectively, and was later modified again by the impact of the S fragment on 21 July 1994.

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      News Media Contacts
      Calla Cofield
      Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
      626-808-2469
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      Christine Pulliam
      Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
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      2025-113
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      “We estimated that this hidden material accounted for almost 45% of the plume’s total mass,” said Timothy Stubbs, a planetary scientist at NASA Goddard who was involved with the study.
       
      While DART showed that a high-speed collision with a spacecraft can change an asteroid’s trajectory, Stubbs and his colleagues note that different asteroid types, such as those made of stronger, more tightly packed material, might respond differently to a DART-like impact. “Every time we interact with an asteroid, we find something that surprises us, so there’s a lot more work to do,” said Stubbs. “But DART is a big step forward for planetary defense.”
       
      The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, managed the DART mission and operated the spacecraft for NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office as a project of the agency’s Planetary Missions Program Office.
       
      By Nathan Marder, nathan.marder@nasa.gov
      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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