A String Of Pearls
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9,
named after its co-discoverers, was often referred
to as the "string of pearls" comet.
It is famous for its suggestive appearance as well as its
collision with the planet Jupiter!
The comet's original single nucleus
was torn to pieces by Jupiter's strong gravity during a close encounter
with the solar system's largest planet in 1992.
The pieces are seen in
this composite of Hubble Space Telescope images to
be "pearls" strung out along
the comet's orbital path.
In July of 1994 these pieces
collided with Jupiter in a
rare
and
spectacular series of events.