About ESA
The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
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Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
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Science & Exploration
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
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Enabling & Support
Making space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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Collision: Comet Shoemaker Levy 9
The video is a mix of animation, videos and images illustrating the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collision with Jupiter. The collision happened 16 July 1994 and lasted five days. The video first mentions that the first time in history human beings have seen a comet in space was in 1986 when ESA’s spacecraft Giotto photographed Comet Halley; images at 3:25. The Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was first detected in March 1993 (4:03). In March 1994 the comet was photographed by the Hubble space telescope’s Wide Field Planetary Camera (4:21). Images and videos from NASA’s Voyager spacecraft show Jupiter and its 16 orbiting moons (4:48). Animation illustrating the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 entering Jupiter’s atmosphere at about 60 km/s (5:15). Video animation illustrates the collision over the five days (5.20). ESA/NASA’s Ulysses spacecraft makes measurements of the explosions (5:55). Other mentioning in the video includes the Moon (1:35), Mars (2:20) and the Asteroid Belt (2:40).
