 The discovery image gave the first hint that comet Shoemaker – Levy 9 was an unusual comet , as it appeared to show multiple nuclei in an elongated region about 50 arcseconds long and 10 arcseconds wide . Brian G. Marsden of the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams noted that the comet lay only about 4 degrees from Jupiter as seen from Earth , and that although this could of course be a line of sight effect , its apparent motion in the sky suggested that it was physically close to it . Because of this , he suggested that the Shoemakers and David Levy had discovered the fragments of a comet that had been disrupted by Jupiter 's gravity . 
