Photometric Effects of the Fall of the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 Fragments Q2 and Q1 onto Jupiter
Abstract
At the fall of fragment Q2 of comet ShoemakerLevy 9 onto Jupiter in 1994, a 4.3% increase of Io brightness was recorded by the Tower Solar Telescope in the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory by means of a CCD matrix in the spectral range of 800 nm at July 20.813 UT. The appearance of a hot cloud at the eastern edge of Jupiter was recorded by the MTM-200 telescope with the use of a TV device in the spectral range of 560 nm 12 min after the previous event. The lower bound of the power released in the explosion was found to be 6 1025 erg/s, the height of the hot cloud was about 250 km, and the mean speed of its ascent was 0.3 km/s. Hot clouds on Jupiter's limb were observed after the fall of fragment Q1 in the spectral ranges of 380 and 560 nm at the epochs 20.836 and 20.840 UT, respectively. The hot cloud observed at 20.836 UT was at the height of the upper cloud layer of the Jovian atmosphere, provided that this small increase of brightness was caused by the explosion at 20.825 UT, when a small part of fragment Q fell down. The cloud height was 900 km, and the speed of its rise was 3.6 km/s, if this event was caused by the fall of fragment Q1a. The hot cloud observed at 20.840 UT was formed at the fall of Q1a. Its height was 350 km and the rise speed was 0.5 km/s. The analysis of photometric observations indicated that there were many components in the family of fragment Q. They fell down onto Jupiter at different instants and produced hot clouds of distinct heights and speeds of rise.
- Publication:
-
Solar System Research
- Pub Date:
- 1996
- Bibcode:
- 1996SoSyR..30..114P