Harvard Scientists Predicted Comet

Thought Harvard astronomers by and large have not joined in the massive collaboration of research into last week's collision of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter, the event was first predicted more than a year ago by University researchers, according to those at the Center for Astrophysics.

Media reports about the week-long occurrence, which has been described as a once-in-a-millennium happening, have been frequent over the past week and a half.

The force from the explosions produced when the many fragments of Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit the solar system's largest planet was the equivalent of several trillion nuclear bombs.

As a result, the event left a large and elaborated scar across the planet's surface. The features of the impact site have been debated across the world during the past several days.

According to the Boston Globe and other media outlets, the collisions have spurred "unprecedented" cooperation among researchers on an international level, aided by the use of the Internet to exchange and distribute data.

But Harvard has not been at the forefront of the discussion, mostly because planetary sciences are not emphasized at the University, according to one researcher.

"The problem is that, although we're a big astronomical and astrophysics institution, planetary sciences are not big here any more," said Brian G. Marsden, associated of the College observatory, yesterday. "The big emphasis here is on extragalactic astronomy."

Of the seven departments at the Center for Astrophysics, Marsden said, planetary sciences is the smallest.

But Marsden pointed out that Harvard was the site of the first prediction of the collision, on May 22 of last year.

After researchers in the Southwest first sighted the comet in March 1993, it was observed at Harvard's Mass. The sighting was the first after the initial confirmation, Marsden said.

"I was the one who predicted the collision in the first placed...in May 1993," Marsden said. "I originally predicted the collision would be on July 25, so I was off by a few days."

Over the year, Marsden said, he was able to further refine his calculations until he was able to narrow down the span of the event to within a few minutes.

He said that, according to his calculations, the comet has been orbiting Jupiter since at least the early 1970s.

Marsden said that he has been talking to other astronomers on the Internet about the collision.

"[But] we just don't have the manpower and people here are in other areas," he said. "I hope we can get more interest and more people working in this area in the future."

He added, though, that the interest of the general public seems to be the reverse of the situation at Harvard.

"The public is much more interested in what goes on in the solar system than what goes on in distant galaxies," he said.

Many area residents interested in the Jupiter collision turned out Thursday night at Harvard for a public viewing of the collision, according to Julie D. Corliss, public affair specialist at the Center for Astrophysics.

"We had about 500 people," she said.