In the summer of 1994, professional and amateur astronomers all over the world turned their telescopes to watch as comet Shoemaker- Levy 9 crashed into the mighty planet Jupiter. The comet— which has also been nicknamed “the String of Pearls” because that is what it looked like— was the first celestial object to be directly observed in the act of crashing into a planet. The comet was named after its discoverers, Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker and David H. Levy, all professional astronomers.

The comet was discovered on March 23, 1993. It was soon revealed that the comet was trapped in an orbit around Jupiter rather than the sun, and that it may have been captured by the giant planet as early as the 1970s. Professional and amateur astronomers tracking its path predicted that it was due to crash into its parent planet, and that in fact it had suffered a near miss with the latter in 1992, as could be deduced from the fragmented form of its nucleus. The recently launched Hubble Space Telescope and other observatories were also aimed to watch this momentous, never-before-witnessed event in astronomical history.

When the comet met its inevitable fate, it did not go quietly. The collision produced a tremendous explosion many times bigger than that produced by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. And a number of scar marks appeared on the planet’s surface and remained there for several Jovian days before finally disappearing.

The news of the impact attracted the attention of scientists and science aficionados throughout the world, and was in all the scientific periodicals. (An article also appeared on the front cover of a newspaper notorious for publishing outlandish, false stories, with the headline “Jupiter is home to living creatures! They signaled to earth for help!”) One effect of the event was to remind us here on earth of the devastating effect such an impact could have on our own planet. As one TV reporter put it, “Yes, little Virginia, comets do hit people.”