 The comet was discovered by astronomers Carolyn and Eugene M. Shoemaker and David Levy . Shoemaker – Levy 9 had been captured by Jupiter and was orbiting the planet at the time . It was located on the night of March 24 , 1993 in a photograph taken with the 40 cm ( 16 in ) Schmidt telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California . It was the first comet observed to be orbiting a planet , and had probably been captured by Jupiter around 20 – 30 years earlier . 
