Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 and well within the orbit of Jupiter's innermost moon Metis and the planet's Roche limit, inside which tidal forces are strong enough to disrupt a body held together only by gravity. Although the comet had approached Jupiter closely before, the July 7 encounter seemed to be by far the closest, and the fragmentation of the comet is thought to have occurred at this time. Each fragment of the comet was denoted by a letter of the alphabet, from "fragment A" through to "fragment W", a practice already established from previously observed broken-up comets. More exciting for planetary astronomers was that
Patacamaya also contains two astro-cameras an AFU-75, and CCD SBIG ST-5 among other astronomical equipment. This equipment has been extremely useful for students researching such events as the passing of Halley's Comet and the Shoemaker Levy 9 Comet. Apart from the Observatory, Patacamaya has some other smaller sources of income including a weekly Sunday fair. Agriculture in the area consists mainly of potatoes. Patacamaya is also home to the military unit 'Batallon de Tanques I Calama.' Patacamaya Patacamaya or Patak Amaya (Aymara) is a city in Bolivia, situated in the La Paz Department. It is the seat of the Patacamaya Municipality,