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(Image: ESA/Herschel/T. Cavalié et al; NASA/ESA/Reta Beebe (New Mexico State University))

This image shows the water-drenched stratosphere of Jupiter, captured yesterday by the Herschel space observatory, superimposed on a Hubble space telescope photo of the planet. Astronomers think that 95 per cent of the water arrived on comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which smashed into Jupiter in July 1994.

It seems the planet’s upper atmosphere was unevenly splashed. White and cyan indicate a higher concentration of water in the southern hemisphere, whereas the darker blue in the north signifies less water there. The south’s greater moistening may be due to the fact that the comet struck here at mid- to far southern latitudes.