Exploration of Jupiter the eight-year study included multiple flybys of all of the Galilean moons, as well as Amalthea (the first probe to do so). It also witnessed the impact of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 as it approached Jupiter in 1994 and the sending of an atmospheric probe into the Jovian atmosphere in December 1995. Cameras on the "Galileo" spacecraft observed fragments of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 between 16 and 22 July 1994 as they collided with Jupiter's southern hemisphere at a speed of approximately 60 kilometres per second. This was the first direct observation of an extraterrestrial collision of solar system objects. While the
Lexell's Comet The comet was also noted by several other astronomers. The comet was observed in Japan. Surviving records identify it as an astronomical and historical phenomenon. It was observed in the Hejaz in Safar 1184 AH (June 1770), where some believed it to be the comet predicted by the poet al-Fasi, portending future events. On July 1, 1770, the comet passed 0.015 astronomical units from Earth, or approximately 6 times the radius of the Moon's orbit. Charles Messier measured the coma as 2° 23' across, around four times the apparent angular size of the Moon. An English astronomer at the time