May 1, 1995
The number of accesses to the Comet Shoemaker-Levy home page at JPL has recently topped the 4 million mark. The comet impact event became the first astronomical event to be supported by global use of the Internet. During the comet impact week of July 16-22, 1994, the Comet SL9 home page become the most accessed home page in the world with over 1.1 million accesses. The 2 million milestone was quickly surpassed in August 1994, and 3 million mark was reached in November 1994. Even though it has been almost 10 months since the comet collisions, the home page is still averaging a brisk 5,000 accesses per day.
The Comet SL9 home page has appeared on the front cover of Science magazine (August 12, 1994) and was featured in a Newsweek article (September 26, 1994). The Comet SL9 home page is currently mentioned in the recent June issues of both Astronomy magzine and Final Frontier magazine. The Comet SL9 home page will also be appearing in two books about the comet crash that will be released later this year. The first book is called "The Great Comet Crash", and is due for release in the summer of 1995 by Cambridge University Press (John Spencer and Jacqueline Mitton, editors). The second book the home page will appear in, "Comet Crash", is written by David Levy - one of the co-discovers of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. Levy's books will also include my personal experiences with the home page. The release date for this book is the fall of 1995.
The Comet SL9 home page is still being updated with the latest news and images on the aftermath of the comet impacts with Jupiter. With over 1,100 images, the home page has the world's largest collection of comet impact images available on the Internet.
Ron Baalke
ron@jpl.nasa.gov
Comet Shoemaker-Levy Home Page