How come...??

Question

Well..Jupiter is a all gas planet...so how come shoemaker-levy comet left craters on the surface of Jupiter?? To leave craters, don't the planets have to have a rocky surface?? How can there be craters in the surface where there's nothin but gas?? Shouldn't the comet have penetrated the surface without leavin any craters??

Thanks..

Answer 1

They weren't craters in the classic sense. They were temporary disturbances in the atmosphere of Jupiter. The fragments blasted away the upper layers of atmosphere exposing lower layers temporarily. Over time, the layers healed themselves and the craters disappeared.

Answer 2

They weren't so much craters in the classical sense...more like gigantic atmospheric disturbances. The impacts of the comet debris caused massive upwellings in Jupiter's cloud covers (similar to the 'mushroom effect' created by an atomic bomb detonation). The comet fragments themselves most likely vaporized on impact on the denser layers.

Answer 3

I am not an astronomer. Jupiter has a lot of moons. Some of the moons are solid and have craters. As Jupiter is totally gaseous, it cannot have craters.

Answer 4

You my friend are sadly mistaken, Shoemaker/levy9 did not leave craters anywhere, and since I do believe it has a solid core, you would never have seen it through the cloud layers

Answer 5

It created crater shaped indentations in the atmosphere, caused by the shockwaves associated with impact- like ripples on a pond after you've thrown a stone into it. These dissipated fairly quickly.

Answer 6

It did not leave any craters. It left disturbances in the clouds that gradually disappeared over time.

Answer 7

Sorry, no craters that we have seen.

Answer 8

Jupiter isn't all gas. It has a core that's rock/ice.