Were it not for a twist of good fortune following a bad accident, Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 might not have been discovered until it collided with Jupiter. With the .46 meter Schimidt telescope at Mount Palomar, the team of Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker and David Levy had been searching the night sky for distant objects in the solar system. Such studies are normally conducted using large glass photo- graphic plates that are painstakingly loaded into the telescope and, after exposure, carefully placed in a light-proof box. When the Shoemakers and Levy began developing their plates, they were dismayed. It appeared that someone had inadvertently opened the plate storage box in the light; the plates were overexposed and
