[meteorite-list] Shoemaker-Levy 9

From: bernd.pauli_at_paulinet.de <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:22:37 2004
Message-ID: <DIIE.0000004D00000BD0_at_paulinet.de>

> If Shoemaker-Levy ... hit our moon instead of Jupiter, what would be
> the results to our moon and what effects would it have on the Earth?

Not quite the answer to your question but also very awe-inspiring:

BEATTY J.K. et al. (1994) The Great Crash of 1994: A First Report
(Sky and Telescope, October 1994, pp. 18-23 - p. 20):

"Fragment G, which at 3 or 4 km across was perhaps the largest of all,
created a fireball at least 3,000 km high and left a multiringed "black eye"
in the Jovian atmosphere twice the diameter of Earth. [The late] Eugene
Shoemaker believes G's kinetic energy was equivalent 6 trillion tons of
TNT - hundreds of times greater than the world's entire nuclear arsenal.
Had it struck Earth instead, he adds, it would probably have left a crater
60 km across."

Best regards,

Bernd
Received on Thu 12 Jun 2003 03:54:48 PM PDT