Illuminated Universe: A New Take on a Comet’s Impact

[bystander]

A New Take on a Comet’s Impact for Hubble’s 30th
Illuminated Universe | Judy Schmidt | 2020 Jun 18

Judy Schmidt is an amateur astronomer and tireless image processor of the Hubble archive. This post details her recent work on the impact of Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter for the BBC/Discovery Science Channel’s documentary Hubble: Thirty Years of Discovery.

[geckzilla]

That was a fun project. I couldn't look at Jupiter for at least a month after, though.

[bystander]

That was a fun project. I couldn't look at Jupiter for at least a month after, though.

I can't imagine. Seem to be a huge project. I was amazed when this showed up in my fb news feed from the HubbleSite page. "Hey, I know her." So, of course, I had to go read about it, and share.

[geckzilla]

I was pretty surprised, myself. I'm used to being ignored by them.

[neufer]

That was a fun project.

I couldn't look at Jupiter for at least a month after, though.

<<Hera [i.e., David Briggs]'s defining task for Argus Panoptes [i.e., "all-seeing" geckzilla] was to guard the white heifer Io from Jupiter, who was attracted to her, keeping her chained to the sacred olive tree at the Argive Heraion. [Briggs] charged [geckzilla] to "Tether this cow safely to an olive-tree at Nemea". To free Io, Jupiter had Argus slain by Mercury. Disguised as a shepherd, Mercury first put all of [geckzilla]'s 100 eyes asleep with spoken charms, then slew her by hitting her with a stone. The sacrifice of [geckzilla] liberated Io and allowed her to wander the earth, although tormented by a gadfly [i.e., Shoemaker-Levy 9] sent by [Briggs], until she reached the Ionian Sea from where she swam to Egypt and gave birth to a love child of Jupiter. According to Ovid, to commemorate his faithful watchman, [Briggs] had the hundred eyes of [geckzilla] preserved forever, in a peacock's tail.>>

[geckzilla]

you're weird, Art.

[Chris Peterson]

you're weird, Art.

Beat me to it.

(And very nice work on the impact project. And a great explanation of the methodology you used.)

[Ann]

I'm so impressed, Geck.

Ann

[neufer]

you're weird, Art.

I beg your pardon.