The comet collision with Jupiter: I. What happened in the impacts

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Jupiter, Sl9 Impact

Scientific paper

In 1994 July, the 20-or-so fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit the planet Jupiter. This article reviews the present understanding of the comet, the impacts themselves, and the chemicals they produced. The impacts of the 12 'on-line' fragments were spectacular in the infrared and left intensely dark smoke clouds. A typical large impact was detected first by infrared emission from the coma and nucleus entering the upper atmosphere, then as an optical flash visible to the Galileo spacecraft, then as a hot fireball or plume which rose over the limb and then collapsed to produce the infrared 'main event' by heating the stratosphere from above. Cometary and jovian molecules were dissociated in the heat of the fireball and splashback, and recombined to form new molecules, which may have been partially segregated according to their origin. However, more analysis will be needed in order to infer uniquely the mass and-composition of the cometary fragments. Large impacts had at least 10[27] ergs (10[17] kJ) and went at least to the 2-bar level, but may have been even larger and deeper.

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