But the object that struck Jupiter in July is estimated to have been much smaller and harder to see than comet Shoemaker-Levy.
VOA: special.2009.08.25
Comet Shoemaker-Levy Nine broke up and struck Jupiter.
VOA: special.2009.08.25
Mr Davies had also suffered from diabetes for the last two years which made him more introverted, according to shoemaker 82-year-old Dennis Edwards, who works 100 yards away from the centuries old Red Lion pub, the scene of the shootings.
One answer might be that the two impacts were, in effect, simultaneous that the objects which created Shiva and Chicxulub were the daughters of a comet that had broken up in space and hit the Earth a few hours apart, as the pieces of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit Jupiter in 1994.
That survey was requested by America's Congress nearly a decade ago, and was stimulated in part by the dramatic images of Comet Shoemaker-Levy, whose collision with Jupiter in 1994 generated a great deal of public awareness of the risk of asteroid impacts. (A couple of Hollywood films exploring doomsday scenarios also swayed opinion.) In 2005 Congress ordered the survey that is about to start.