The world's most watched comet-Jupiter collision

Whenever we talk about how dinosaurs left the stage of history, we have to mention the disaster brought to the earth by the asteroid impact. Although some people still believe that the cause of extinction is more than that, the "astronomical impact theory" has indeed become the mainstream view.

Conceptual image of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event

In fact, the probability of a "car accident" in the universe is not low, and small celestial bodies often pass by the earth. Of course, since the realization of long-distance astronomical observation, humans will also observe whether nearby celestial bodies have encountered a car accident. On that day in 1994, a comet and Jupiter collided.

Some people believe that if Jupiter had not resisted the devastating blow, there might be no human beings on Earth. Is this true? Next, let's take a look!

The collision process of Jupiter and comet

Jupiter is often called the "protector"

Jupiter is the largest of the eight planets under the sun, and its mass is 2.5 times the total mass of the other planets. Although it is a giant planet, it is not a terrestrial planet like the Earth, but a gas planet. And this guy has been maintaining a high-speed rotation, and it only takes 9 hours and 55 minutes to complete a rotation.

Under such high-speed rotation, the wind speed on Jupiter's surface is extremely terrifying, and it is several blocks away from the strongest wind on Earth. It is also because of this that its surface looks like it has been deliberately "drawn", with obvious layers, which looks very beautiful.

Jupiter's gorgeous stripe structure

If we compare Jupiter with the Earth, we can find that the Earth is really very small in front of it, because its surface area is 122 times that of the Earth and its volume is 1316 times that of the Earth.

Therefore, the ignition of Jupiter to accelerate the Earth that appears in science fiction novels actually gives the Earth a "protagonist halo". After all, due to the existence of the Roche limit, the Earth may have been torn apart in the process of approaching Jupiter.

Size comparison of Jupiter and Earth

Fortunately, the distance between us and Jupiter is still relatively far, and under the influence of Jupiter's super-strong gravity, the "safety factor" of the Earth inside has been greatly improved. Why do I say that?

Although the universe is relatively empty and most celestial bodies are restricted by gravity, there are always some small celestial bodies that do not follow the usual path and wander around in the universe.

Conceptual image of Jupiter's gravity

This kind of headless fly-like flight is very likely to collide with other celestial bodies, and Jupiter is like a huge "magnet" outside the Earth, taking on the task of collecting small celestial bodies and completing many interceptions to prevent these small celestial bodies from flying towards the Earth and causing terrible collision disasters. It is precisely because of this that Jupiter is often called the "big brother" or "guardian god" that protects the Earth.

Therefore, humans still have a certain "complex" about Jupiter and have always paid close attention to it. In this way, in 1994, people witnessed the collision of Comet SL9 with Jupiter.

Comet SL9 flies towards Jupiter

The world's most watched comet-Jupiter collision

First, let's briefly introduce the comet intercepted by Jupiter, which was discovered by American astrophysicist Eugene Shoemaker and his wife Caroline Shoemaker. This guy looks like a necklace, split into many pieces but flying in a straight line.

According to the data, astronomers estimated from the images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope that the diameter of the comet's sub-nucleus does not exceed 4 kilometers, and it is more likely to be 2 kilometers. But even this diameter is very terrifying for the earth.

Scattered "Comet Necklaces"

In this way, on July 17, 1994, Comet SL9 collided with Jupiter. Humans successfully predicted their collision, and Galileo also photographed the moment of the "comet-Jupiter collision". It is worth mentioning that we mentioned above that the shape of this comet is very strange. It is not a complete piece, but a series of.

Therefore, the collision between the comet and Jupiter was not a one-off, but a "continuous attack" like a machine gun. Jupiter began to receive impacts on July 17, 1994, and the impact was completely stopped on the 22nd. So, what happened after the two collided?

The process of Comet SL9 impacting Jupiter

Since the comet is very large, the high-temperature gases on the surface of Jupiter were sent flying into the sky when it hit Jupiter, and the temperature rose to a very terrifying level. From the observations of humans on Earth, we can see multiple bursts of strong light, which are the "explosions" that occurred after the comet fragments came into contact with Jupiter's atmosphere.

Moreover, most of the fragments were not completely consumed in the process of passing through Jupiter's atmosphere, but instead hit the surface of Jupiter, leaving obvious traces. According to observations, the diameter of the largest wound can reach 30,000 kilometers, and the "deep crater" created by the impact can easily fill the Earth.

Several deep pits left by Comet SL9 on Jupiter

Later, many scientists said that the explosion of the comet after colliding with Jupiter was equivalent to releasing about 40 trillion tons of high explosives.

If we use atomic bomb explosions as a "unit of measurement", then at least 2 billion atomic bombs exploded over Jupiter in the five days from the beginning of the impact to the end.

The process of Jupiter encountering an impact

You can imagine what would happen to the Earth if this "serial bombardment" hit it. I'm afraid the Earth would have been beaten into a "sieve" long ago. In this case, if Jupiter had not helped the Earth to withstand such a devastating blow, would humans have been extinct that year?

Conceptual image of an impact with the Earth

What would happen if Jupiter didn't intercept Comet SL9?

In fact, from the strong explosion light emitted by Jupiter and the deep impact marks on its surface, we can know that Comet SL9 is not a good thing. Although it was broken into many small fragments during the flight, the size of these fragments is still very amazing, so it will still have a terrifying impact when it hits.

If the celestial body that Comet SL9 encounters is the Earth, then the situation on Earth may be even more tragic than that on Jupiter. After all, our size is not on the same level as Jupiter, so when we suffer such a series of "collisions", some unexpected accidents are very likely to occur.

Will the Earth cease to exist?

And no matter what, once the impact occurred, the only outcome facing humans at that time would be extinction, with no possibility of survival.

In this case, Jupiter does seem to have protected the Earth and humans from the horrific attack. So, if there had been no interception by Jupiter, would Comet SL9 really have collided with the Earth?

Conceptual image of the Earth being hit by a small celestial body

According to scientists' research data, this probability is actually very small, because the comet still has a certain flight orbit, and the distance between this orbit and the earth is still relatively large. In this case, even without Jupiter's interception, it will not collide with the earth.

Of course, all of this is inferred from theoretical models, and accidents may happen in reality. In addition to Comet SL9, Jupiter has intercepted other restless asteroids or comets in recent years. Once these small celestial bodies rush towards the earth, they will still cause terrible collision accidents.

Schematic diagram of the flight path of Comet SL9

Therefore, from a certain perspective, Jupiter is indeed like a huge protective umbrella around the Earth, protecting the Earth from many impacts.

However, scientists said that since the impact accident concerns the survival of mankind, it is not enough for us to just rely on Jupiter. We must establish relevant monitoring and defense mechanisms to create a "defense armor" for the earth.

Jupiter also encountered a small celestial body impact in 2019

In this way, even if there are fish that slip through the net and escape Jupiter's interception in the future, humans can rely on relevant technologies to solve these troubles for themselves. However, the premise of solving the trouble is to be able to make timely warnings, otherwise it will be too late to discover these alien visitors when they are right in front of you.

Scientists have currently developed a variety of methods to solve the asteroid impact crisis, including pulsed energy transfer, progressive active traction, and ground passive defense.

However, all these methods can only minimize the adverse effects of the collision, and it is difficult to fundamentally solve the collision crisis.

Humans already have a meteorite-related early warning system

Therefore, before humans successfully achieve extraterrestrial immigration, we still pray that we do not encounter aliens that are too large, because this will really cause a devastating blow to humans. After all, the dinosaurs that once dominated the earth also perished in such a disaster.

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