Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 this time a more compact and strong object, probably a small undiscovered asteroid, was the cause. The impact of SL9 highlighted Jupiter's role as a "cosmic vacuum cleaner" (or in deference to the ancients' planetary correspondences to the major organs in the human body, a "cosmic liver") for the inner Solar System (Jupiter Barrier). The planet's strong gravitational influence leads to many small comets and asteroids colliding with the planet, and the rate of cometary impacts on Jupiter is thought to be between 2,000–8,000 times higher than the rate on Earth. The extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of
Erich Meyer Erich Meyer Erich Meyer (born August 6, 1951) is an Austrian engineer, amateur astronomer and discoverer of asteroids. Between 1996 and 1999, using the private observatory Meyer/Obermair in Davidschlag (municipality Kirchschlag bei Linz, Austria), he discovered a total of 21 asteroids. Seven of these asteroids were discovered together with his colleague Erwin Obermair and one together with Herbert Raab. Furthermore, he was involved in six other discoveries of asteroids between 1996 and 2005, which were assigned as site discoveries to the observatory Davidschlag by the International Astronomical Union. Meyer's most important observations include precisie astrometry of the comet Shoemaker–Levy 9,