Editing Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 (section)

== Predictions for the collision ==
The discovery that the comet was likely to collide with Jupiter caused great excitement within the astronomical community and beyond, as astronomers had never before seen two significant Solar System bodies collide. Intense studies of the comet were undertaken, and as its orbit became more accurately established, the possibility of a collision became a certainty. The collision would provide a unique opportunity for scientists to look inside Jupiter's atmosphere, as the collisions were expected to cause eruptions of material from the layers normally hidden beneath the clouds.<ref name="Bruton1.4">{{cite web |first=Dan |last=Burton |url=http://www.physics.sfasu.edu/astro/sl9/cometfaq.html#Q1.4 |title=What will be the effect of the collision? |work=Frequently Asked Questions about the Collision of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 with Jupiter |publisher=[[Stephen F. Austin State University]] |date=July 1994 |access-date=August 20, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121209023201/http://www.physics.sfasu.edu/astro/sl9/cometfaq.html |archive-date=December 9, 2012  }}</ref>

Astronomers estimated that the visible fragments of SL9 ranged in size from a few hundred metres (around {{convert|300|m|abbr=on|disp=out|sigfig=1}}) to {{convert|2|km|spell=in}} across, suggesting that the original comet may have had a nucleus up to {{convert|5|km|abbr=on}} across—somewhat larger than [[Comet Hyakutake]], which became very bright when it passed close to the Earth in 1996. One of the great debates in advance of the impact was whether the effects of the impact of such small bodies would be noticeable from Earth, apart from a flash as they disintegrated like giant [[Meteoroid|meteors]].<ref name="Bruton1.5">{{cite web |first=Dan |last=Bruton |url=http://www.physics.sfasu.edu/astro/sl9/cometfaq.html#Q1.5 |title=Can I see the effects with my telescope? |work=Frequently Asked Questions about the Collision of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 with Jupiter |publisher=[[Stephen F. Austin State University]] |date=July 1994 |access-date=August 20, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121209023201/http://www.physics.sfasu.edu/astro/sl9/cometfaq.html |archive-date=December 9, 2012  }}</ref> The most optimistic prediction was that large, asymmetric [[bolide|ballistic fireballs]] would rise above the limb of Jupiter and into sunlight to be visible from Earth.<ref name="Boslough">{{cite journal |last1=Boslough |first1=Mark B. |date=July 5, 1994 |title=Watching for Fireballs on Jupiter |journal=Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union |volume=75 | number=27|page=305 | last2=Crawford |first2=David A. |last3=Robinson |first3=Allen C. |last4=Trucano |first4=Timothy G. |doi=10.1029/94eo00965|bibcode = 1994EOSTr..75..305B }}</ref>
Other suggested effects of the impacts were [[Seismology|seismic]] waves travelling across the planet, an increase in [[stratosphere|stratospheric]] haze on the planet due to dust from the impacts, and an increase in the mass of the [[Rings of Jupiter|Jovian ring system]]. However, given that observing such a collision was completely unprecedented, astronomers were cautious with their predictions of what the event might reveal.<ref name="Bruton1.4" />