Belated bit of Shoemaker-Levy?

15 years later to the day, does that make it likely to be a bit that missed
15 years ago or am I taking an earth-centric view of solar years ?


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"N_Cook" wrote in message
...
15 years later to the day, does that make it likely to be a bit that
missed
15 years ago or am I taking an earth-centric view of solar years ?

Certainly, the Jovian year is 11.86 Earth years, so 15 years implies
something like 1.25 orbits so it's not going to be in the same region of
solar system space as in 1994.

However, this is probably irrelevant since, (from what I've read) comet SL-9
was in orbit around Jupiter (as opposed to around the sun) prior to the 1994
impacts, so it doesn't rule out completely that it was a 22nd fragment of
the comet.

On the other hand, it seems unlikely that the 1992 closest approach
(perijove?) that caused the original comet to fragment, would have given
rise to a fragment with such a different trajectory so as to avoid hitting
Jupiter for such a long time.