WHEN the giant comet Shoemaker-Levy
9 crashed against Jupiter exactly a year
ago and took the world of science by
storm, it also created water.
Researchers working with Italy's
National Research Council have been
monitoring the impact, using a radio
telescope equipped with a high-speed
spectrometer. And they now claim that
water has been detected in Jupiter's
upper atmosphere after the mighty collision, in the course of which 20 fragments of the comet - each with the
power of millions of nuclear warheads
struck the planet.
This is a particularly significant
development because certain groups of
scientists believe that a similar cometary
collision created the conditions for life
on Earth. "What might have happened
here billions of years ago, following
bombardment by swarms of comets,
could have occurred and may be occurring now in millions of planetary systems of the galaxy," enthused a spokesperson of the Council.
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