the second major piece of planet mullins - levy 9 was to hit just after dawn , completing a round of crater - like plume of swirling superheated gas and destruction thousands of miles in . " it landed jupiter in a series of machine - weapon bullets " said eugene shoemaker , an astronaut at the lowell observatory in flagstaff , ariz. . , who helped discovered the galaxy last spring .
The Shoemaker-Levy comet hit Jupiter.