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.
References
External links 118P/Shoemaker–Levy at the JPL Small-Body Database 118P/Shoemaker–Levy on Gary W. Kronk's Cometography 118P/Shoemaker–Levy at Seiichi Yoshida's website 118P/Shoemaker–Levy at Kazuo Kinoshita's website