# What Physically Happened to the Jupiter "Meteor?"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-physically-happened-to-the-jupiter-meteor/504398>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 27, 2009, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-physically-happened-to-the-jupiter-meteor/504398 "2009-07-27T05:03:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ourrah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9de0a6/32.png) [@Ourrah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ourrah)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-physically-happened-to-the-jupiter-meteor/504398/1 "2009-07-27T05:03:24Z")

</div>

I have meteor in quotes as I don’t know what hit Jupiter the other day, but am just guessing it was a meteor. Anywho, when the object struck Jupiter, it being a gas giant, how far in did the object make it before breaking up? What broke it up, gravitational forces, atmosphere, rocky core, combination of some or all? Where would the fragments end up? Just askin’. Thanks for any information.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-physically-happened-to-the-jupiter-meteor/504398/2 "2009-07-27T05:09:51Z")

</div>

Given the density of the Jovian atmosphere, I would assume that it vaporized completely.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MeDrewNotYou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@MeDrewNotYou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeDrewNotYou)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-physically-happened-to-the-jupiter-meteor/504398/3 "2009-07-27T11:56:52Z")

</div>

> [@Ourrah](#):
>
> I have meteor in quotes as I don’t know what hit Jupiter the other day, but am just guessing it was a meteor. Anywho, when the object struck Jupiter, it being a gas giant, how far in did the object make it before breaking up? What broke it up, gravitational forces, atmosphere, rocky core, combination of some or all? Where would the fragments end up? Just askin’. Thanks for any information.

Before Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit, it was pulled apart into a bunch of smaller pieces by Jupiter’s gravity: [You can see a chain of impacts.](http://astronomersguide.com/images/Shoemaker-Levy%209%20on%20Jupiter.jpg) Looking at the recent impact pictures, though, there seems to be just one hole, so it doesn’t look like it was torn up before entry. I doubt it got anywhere the core since the atmosphere gets pretty thick quickly. (The core [isn’t rocky](http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/jupiter/core.html), its probably a liquidy/slushy hydrogen. That’s all kinds of cool.)

I eagerly await someone who knows more than I to make me look bad.😃