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
Carolyn S. Shoemaker Rittenhouse Medal of the Rittenhouse Astronomical Society in 1988 and the Scientist of the Year Award in 1995. The Hildian asteroid 4446 Carolyn, discovered by college Edward Bowell at Lowell Observatory in 1985, was named in her honor. Carolyn Shoemaker is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of 377 numbered minor planets made between 1980 and 1994. Carolyn S. Shoemaker Carolyn Jean Spellmann Shoemaker (born June 24, 1929) is an American astronomer and is a co-discoverer of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9. She once held the record for most comets discovered by an individual. Carolyn Jean Spellmann was born