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The Comet D/Shoemaker-Levy 9/Jupiter Impact Observing Campaign

The fragments of Comet D/Shoemaker-Levy 9 (1993 F2, also known colloquially as "SL9" during the campaign) impacted Jupiter over the course of a week in July, 1994. A coordinated observing campaign was organized and involved ground-based observatories, Earth-orbiting satellites,and interplanetary spacecraft - a couple of which were called out of retirement to attempt observations of the impact events. The observations focusing on the fragments of the comet prior to and during impact are located here at the Small Bodies Node, and are available through the links below.

Other observations were focused on Jupiter and the effects of the impacts on the Jovian atmosphere. These data are located at the PDS Atmospheres Node, as part of their Jupiter data archives (scroll down to the "Shoemaker-Levy 9 Jupiter Impact Data" section).

Ground-Based Observatories

These data were contributed by observers working at ground-based observatories around the world.

• The Global Imaging Campaign was a coordinated effort among five observatories to do high-speed optical CCD imaging with broad and narrow band filters during the impacts. The observatories involved were:
  1. Mt. Elliot, Queensland, Australia - using a portable C-14 telescope
  2. Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory, Chile - using the Planetary Patrol Telescope
  3. Lick Observatory, Mt. Hamilton, California - using the Anna L. Nickel 1-meter Reflector
  4. Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawaii - using the Planetary Patrol Telescope
  5. Reunion Island, in the Indian Ocean - using a portable C-14 telescope
• A team from the University of Maryland obtained Photometry of Io and Europa During SL9 Flashes for the D, E, K, and N fragment impacts using a high-speed occultation timing photometer on a C-14 portable telescope located on Mt. Singleton in Western Australia.
• The European Southern Observatory contributed data taken with three different instruments:
  • ESO Multi-Mode Instrument (EMMI) images
  • Infrared Spectrometer 2-D spectra
  • Superb Seeing Imager (SUSI) images
• The data from the Infrared Telescope Facility contains images of the fragments prior to impact and of the Jovian rings post-impact, obtained using the NSFCAM instrument.
• The Mt. Stromlo Siding Spring Observatory (MSSSO) Cryogenic Array Spectrometer/Imager (CASPIR) provided images of the impacts and observations of standard stars used in reducing the data in separate data sets.
• The Okayama Astrophysical Observatory (OAO) provided infrared images obtained with the Okayama Astrophysical System for Infrared Imaging and Spectroscopy (OASIS).

Earth-Orbiting Satellites

Two Earth-orbiting satellites observed the comet fragment impacts:

• The Hubble Space Telescope Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2 obtained images of Jupiter during the Shoemaker-Levy 9 fragment impacts, as well as observing Jupiter on the day before the impacts and several weeks afterwards.
• The International Ultraviolet Explorer obtained spectra of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts with two of its instruments, the Long-Wavelength Prime detector and the Short-Wavelength Prime detector.

Interplanetary Spacecraft

Some interplanetary spacecraft were in a position to make observations of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts. The SBN has data from the following spacecraft:

• Galileo Orbiter - five data sets total, from four different instruments:
  • Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer data tables
  • Photopolarimeter Radiometer time series data
  • Solid State Imaging camera (raw) images
  • Raw and Reduced Ultraviolet Spectrometer data of the fragment G impact
• Voyager 2 attempted Ultraviolet Spectrometer observations of the impacts, but returned no detections. This "dataset" documents that attempt.

Related Datasets

Use the Small Bodies Data Ferret to find other datasets for this mission/target.