Other
Scientific paper
May 1994
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994icar..109....3t&link_type=abstract
Icarus (ISSN 0019-1035), vol. 109, no. 1, p. 3-19
Other
44
Atmospheric Models, Cometary Collisions, Hypervelocity Impact, Jupiter Atmosphere, Plumes, Shoemaker-Levy 9 Comet, Three Dimensional Models, Computerized Simulation, Hydrodynamics, Shock Wave Propagation
Scientific paper
The impact of fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter and the resulting vapor plume expansion are investigated by conducting three-dimensional numerical simulations using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method. An icy body, representing the cometary fragments, with a velocity of 60 km/sec and a diameter of 2 km can penetrate to 350 km below the 1-bar pressure level in the atmosphere. Most of the initial kinetic energy of the fragment is transferred to the atmosphere between 50 km and 300 km below the 1-bar pressure level. The shock-heated atmospheric gas in the wake is totally dissociated and partially ionized. Scaling our SPH results to other sizes indicates that fragments larger than approximately 100 m in diameter can penetrate to below the visible cloud decks. The energy deposited in the atmosphere is explosively released in the upward expansion of the resulting plume. The plume preferentially expands upward rather than horizontally due to the density gradient of the ambient atmosphere. It rises greater than or equal to 102 km in approximately 102 sec. Eventually the total atmospheric mass ejected to above 1 bar is greater than or equal to 40 times the initial mass of the impactor. The plume temperature at a radius approximately 103 km is greater than 103 K for 103 sec for a 2-km fragment. We predict that impact-induced plumes will be observable with the remote sensing instruments of the Galileo spacecraft. As the impact site rotates into the view of Earth some 20 min after the impact, the plume expansion will be observable using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and from visible and infrared instruments on groundbased telescopes. The rising plume reaches approximately 3000 km altitude in approximately 10 min and will be visible from Earth.
Ahrens Thomas J.
O'Keefe John D.
Orton Glenn S.
Takata Toshiko
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