Comets of our Solar System

Full size image of Halley's Comet (49 KB.)

Constants (Halley's Comet)

•  Mean Radius:               (4 x 8) km

•  Mass:                      ? (Earth=1)

•  Density:                   ? (g/cm^3)

•  Gravity:                   ? (Earth=1)

•  Orbit Period:              76.6 (Earth years)

•  Rotation Period:           ? (Earth days)

•  Semimajor Axis of Orbit:   17.8 au

•  Eccentricity of Orbit:     0.967

Shoemaker-Levy 9 Comet

Pieces of the Shomaker-Levy 9 comet plummeted into Jupiter's atmosphere during the week of July 16-22, 1994. Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker were codiscovers, with David Levy, of the comet. Eugene Shoemaker was the founder of the USGS Astrogeology Research Program and the Flagstaff Field Center. He retired in 1993 and became a Scientist Emeritus with the USGS. He died in an auto accident in Australia July 18,1997. His wife Carolyn is an USGS volunteer. David Levy is a science writer and lecturer and is associated with the Lunar Planetary laboratory at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Links to Other Sites with Comet Shoemaker - Levy 9 Information

• National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC)
• Space Telescope Science Institute (Hubble Space Telescope)
• Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
• Galileo SSI Team