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The Crash at Last!

The Crash at Last!
The Crash at Last! This infrared image of Jupiter was captured on July 18, 1994, with the 10-meter Keck telescope at the summit of Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii. At lower left, the bright plume from the impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's fragment G rises above the planet's eastern limb. This picture was taken about 10 minutes after the predicted time of impact. In this false-color image, yellow represents the hottest areas, and blue, the coolest. In subsequent shots, this plume brightened to outshine the planet and render it invisible next to the extreme glare of the plume. W. M. Keck Observatory/Imke de Pater, James Graham and Garrett Jernigan; University of California, Berkeley