Space smash
Astronomers discovered a new comet in 1993 - and realised that it was headed straight for Jupiter, on a collision course! Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was split into pieces by Jupiter's massive gravitational pull and met a fiery end in the planet's atmosphere in July 1994. Galileo had a spectacular view.
Worried that the same thing could happen to the Earth? Don't panic. It's very rare for a comet to hit a planet - it only happens once every millennium or so. Galileo was the first spacecraft to see a comet hitting a planet.
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Galileo spots a fragment of the comet heading for Jupiter
Image: NASA/JPL |
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