the third major piece of comet shoemaker - levy 9 was to hit just after midnight , completed a ring of crescent - like spewed of swirling superheated gas and remnants myriad of miles away . " it hit jupiter without a line of machine - gun bullets " said raymond shoemaker , an officer at the lowell observatory in flagstaff , ariz. . , who helped discover the planet last weekend .
The Shoemaker-Levy comet hit Jupiter.