What did it leave 'holes' in? And how does something "smash" into a ball of gas?
2007-12-09 05:47:49 · 7 answers · asked by Slappy McStretchNuts 5 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Those weren´t holes. They were monstrous mushroomclouds from the impacts as seen from above.
Jupiters gravitational pull is 2.5 times greater than earths so an object would accelerate to much greater speeds under the influence of Jupiters gravity. This means the impacts of the fragments would have even greater energy than if they had struck earth. And an impact with earth would be globally devastating. You may have seen a shooting star at night. Those are little peebles of rock that smash into earths upper atmosphere. They are completely annihilated as the energy is so great that it doesn´t matter if the upper atmosphere is less than 1% of earths surface pressure. That peeble might just have well impacted with a concrete wall. Think about how hard water seems to get when you jump into a pool from a high trampoline. Now consider the greater gravitational pull of Jupiter and the fact that it´s atmosphere is so dense that 150 km into its atmosphere the pressure is so great that hydrogen is liquid. Would a perfect concrete wall wouldn´t it?
2007-12-09 07:24:20 · answer #1 · answered by DrAnders_pHd 6 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Most of the things that collide with Earth do not make it to the ground -- and Earth is definitely not all gas. It is just that at the incoming speed (for example, 60 km/s = 134,000 mph for the Perseids), hitting even our puny atmosphere is like hitting a wall. Imagine Jupiter's atmosphere which is a lot denser than ours (ours is almost a vacuum compared to Jupiter's atmosphere). We still do not know for sure if Jupiter has a solid core (it could be metallic hydrogen with a "sprinkling" of heavier stuff) but it does not matter. All pieces of the comet would have vaporized very high in Jupiter's atmosphere.
2016-05-22 08:10:03 · answer #2 · answered by raye 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When the shuttle re-enters it generates huge heat, and the friction slows it down. When Shoemaker Levy 9 hit Jupiter it was going much faster, and was much bigger, and did not have a specially designed heat shield to deal with it. Result: colossal explosion on a scale so large that the impact scars, which were caused by the explosion churning up the atmosphere and bringing up chemicals usually not found near the top of the cloud layer, were bigger than the entire planet Earth. After a few days they'd gone as the atmosphere settled back to normal again.
2007-12-09 06:23:47 · answer #3 · answered by Jason T 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I agree with the previous answers you have got, there were no holes, just displacements of gas by big chunks of rock, some 4 km in size, we observed them dark but they weren´t holes. Remember that as you go deeper into Jupiter the gas tends to be more dense.
2007-12-09 10:15:08 · answer #4 · answered by Asker 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
ok, the comet was large enough to create earth size craters. why wouldnt it displace gas. its not like it would just pass right through it, even you displace air when you walk or just even sit still. gas isnt just something that doesnt interact with anything else. if you drop a pebble into a lake it would displace water, so why wouldnt a comet displace gas?
and are u kidding me? it left holes in the gas atmosphere. and how doesnt something smash into a ball of gas? it does it the same way something smashes into a solid or a liquid...its moves...and the hits it...
2007-12-09 05:54:07 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
They would form massive holes that would be very large and would take some time to fill in.
If one hit the ocean on earth it would also form a big hole that would fill in more quickly.
2007-12-09 10:23:12 · answer #6 · answered by Billy Butthead 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Dr Anders said it best...
2007-12-09 13:25:50 · answer #7 · answered by jilliebean 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋