118P/Shoemaker–Levy (also known as Shoemaker–Levy 4) is a Jupiter-family comet discovered by astronomers Carolyn and Eugene M. Shoemaker and David Levy.

During the 2010 apparition the comet became as bright as apparent magnitude 11.5.

On 3 December 2015, comet Shoemaker–Levy 4 passed 0.0442 AU (6.61 million km; 4.11 million mi) from asteroid 4 Vesta.

This comet should not be confused with Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 (D/1993 F2) which spectacularly crashed into Jupiter in 1994.

Physical characteristics

Hubble observations in 2004 estimated that the nucleus of Shoemaker–Levy 4 is estimated to be about 4.8 km (3.0 mi) in diameter. Follow-up observations in 2011 revealed that it is slightly larger, at 5.22 km (3.24 mi) in diameter.

External links

  • at the JPL Small-Body Database· · · · ·
  • on Gary W. Kronk's Cometography
  • at Seiichi Yoshida's website
  • at Kazuo Kinoshita's website
Numbered comets
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