the final main piece of impact shoemaker - levy 9 was to hit just after midnight , completing a ring of crater - like billowing of floating steam gas and destruction thousands of miles across . " it landed jupiter like a band of machine - rifle , " said james shoemaker , an astronomer at the smithsonian observatory in flagstaff , ariz . , whose worked identify the comet before year .
The Shoemaker-Levy comet hit Jupiter.