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Jupiter is often able to capture comets that orbit the Sun; such comets enter unstable orbits around the planet that are highly elliptical and perturbable by solar gravity. While some of them eventually recover a heliocentric orbit, others crash into the planet or more rarely become one of its satellites. [2] [3]
Artist's depiction of a collision between two planetary bodies. Such an impact between the Earth and a Mars-sized object likely formed the Moon. In the early history of the Earth (about four billion years ago), bolide impacts were almost certainly common since the Solar System contained far more discrete bodies than at present.
The crash landing sites themselves are of interest to space archeology. Luna 1 , not itself a lunar orbiter, was the first spacecraft designed as an impactor . It failed to hit the Moon in 1959, however, thus inadvertently becoming the first man-made object to leave geocentric orbit and enter a heliocentric orbit , where it remains.
The best nights of all of 2022 to see Jupiter in the night sky are about to take place as the planet takes center stage in the night sky, a showing unlike any other in nearly six decades ...
The 2009 Jupiter impact event, occasionally referred to as the Wesley impact, was a July 2009 impact event on Jupiter that caused a black spot in the planet's atmosphere. The impact area covered 190 million square kilometers, similar in area to the planet's Little Red Spot and approximately the size of the Pacific Ocean . [ 3 ]
Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 (formally designated D/1993 F2) was a comet that broke apart in July 1992 and collided with Jupiter in July 1994, providing the first direct observation of an extraterrestrial collision of Solar System objects. [5]
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Jupiter's moons were classified into four groups of four, based on their similar orbital elements. [204] This picture has been complicated by the discovery of numerous small outer moons since 1999. Jupiter's moons are divided into several different groups, although there are two known moons which are not part of any group (Themisto and Valetudo ...