the final major object of orbit shoemaker - russell 9 was to struck just after midday , forming a ring of crater - like fireball of swirling boilers gas and debris thousands of miles across . " it hit jupiter like a hail of machine - guns guns " said eugene shoemaker , an astronomers at the lowell observatory in albuquerque , ariz . , who led discovered the comet prior fall .
The Shoemaker-Levy comet hit Jupiter.