Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 its orbit became more accurately established, the possibility of a collision became a certainty. The collision would provide a unique opportunity for scientists to look inside Jupiter's atmosphere, as the collisions were expected to cause eruptions of material from the layers normally hidden beneath the clouds. Astronomers estimated that the visible fragments of SL9 ranged in size from a few hundred metres (around ) to across, suggesting that the original comet may have had a nucleus up to across—somewhat larger than Comet Hyakutake, which became very bright when it passed close to the Earth in 1996. One of the great
Herschel Space Observatory had been delivered as a result of the collision of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 in 1994. On 22 January 2014, ESA scientists reported the detection, for the first definitive time, of water vapor on the dwarf planet, Ceres, largest object in the asteroid belt. The detection was made by using the far-infrared abilities of the "Herschel Space Observatory". The finding is unexpected because comets, not asteroids, are typically considered to "sprout jets and plumes". According to one of the scientists, "The lines are becoming more and more blurred between comets and asteroids." On 29 April 2013, ESA announced that "Herschel" supply