Daniel,
 
I don't know if this is important to your study, but I've often wondered if this memorable sight 13 years ago wasn't a sign...
 
The first impact occurred at 20:15 UTC on July 16, 1994, when fragment A of the nucleus slammed into Jupiter's southern hemisphere at a speed of about 60 km/s. Over the next 6 days, 21 discrete impacts were observed, with the largest coming on July 18 at 07:34 UTC when fragment G struck Jupiter. This impact created a giant dark spot over 12,000 km across, and was estimated to have released an energy equivalent to 6,000,000 megatons of TNT (750 times the world's nuclear arsenal). Two impacts 12 hours apart on July 19 created impact marks of similar size to that caused by fragment G, and impacts continued until July 22, when fragment W struck the planet.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Shoemaker-Levy_9
 
Kay