Table of Contents

Introduction

Main Contents:

1. What Is a Comet?

2. The Motion of Comets

3. The Fragmentation of Comets

4. The Discovery and Early Study of Shoemaker-Levy 9

5. The Planet Jupiter

6. The Final Orbit of Shoemaker-Levy 9

7. The Collisions

8. How Can These Impacts and Their Consequences Be Studied?

9. What Do Scientists Expect to Learn from All of This?

Appendices

A. Comparative Tables

B. The K-T Event

C. The Probability of Collisions with Earth

Acknowledgments