HYBRID – General Meeting – February 2024

Presentation:  Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 and Jupiter after thirty years: A retrospective of what happened and what we learned

On March 23, 1993, Carolyn and Gene Shoemaker and David H. Levy discovered a comet that had been fragmented into more than 21 pieces. Two months later they learned that the comet would collide with Jupiter. The collision happened between July 16 and July 21, 1994, thirty years ago. David H. Levy’s presentation will offer a retrospective of what happened, and what humanity learned about comets, about Jupiter, and about the origin of life.

Biography: TAAA member, David H Levy, is arguably one of the most enthusiastic and famous amateur astronomers of our time. Although he’s never taken an astronomy class, he has written over three dozen books, has written for three astronomy magazines and has appeared on television programs featured on the Discovery and the Science Channels. Among David’s accomplishments are 23 comet discoveries, (the most famous being Shoemaker-Levy 9), a few hundred shared asteroid discoveries, an Emmy for the documentary Three Minutes to Impact, five honorary doctorates in Science and a PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2010) which combines astronomy and English Literature. Currently, he is the editor of the web magazine Sky’s Up!, and has a monthly column, Skyward, in the local Vail Voice newspaper. David continues to hunt for comets and asteroids, and lectures worldwide.