Death of a comet: SPIREX observations of the collision of SL9 with Jupiter

Details Death of a comet: SPIREX observations of the collision of SL9 with Jupiter Death of a comet: SPIREX observations of the collision of SL9 with Jupiter

Aug 2000

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000phdt........15s&link_type=abstract

Thesis (PhD). THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, Source DAI-B 61/02, p. 893, Aug 2000, 149 pages.

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The South Pole Infrared Explorer (SPIREX) is the name given a series of experiments to study and exploit the low thermal background at the South Pole for near- infrared observations. We observed the collision of the fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter using the SPIREX 60 cm bent Cassegrain telescope. The camera we used was the near-infrared Grism Spectrometer and Imager (GRIM I). The SPIREX telescope was able to enjoy a nearly uninterrupted view of this event from its unique vantage point at the South Pole. We observed during eighteen of the predicted impact times. We carried out two programs. Series of 2.36 and 2.22 micron images were taken to generate light curves for the events. Between impacts, we imaged the disk of Jupiter with most of our filters at hourly intervals. The SPIREX dataset contains nearly 3000 images taken during and after these impacts. We tested the instrumental characteristics and present them here. In addition, we developed tools for automatic data correction and extraction. We present a reduction and analysis of the impact observations including the resulting light curves. Impact timings, energies and phenomenology are tabulated. The light curves are used to investigate properties of the impacts. Most importantly, we have concluded that the impacts of the middle-train fragments differed from those of the other fragments. They produced what we call a prolonged fountain of ejecta. We discuss the significance of this finding. Finally, the onset of CO emission is investigated.

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