|
|
COMET SL9 IMPACTS ON JUPITER
 |
Note:
Click on title frame below
to view the movie
(You will need the QuickTime
player)
The impact of fragment R of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 will occur to the left of
the bright patch on the lower left of the first image below. This first image
shows three bright spots: sunlight reflected off high altitude material left
behind after the impact of fragments G (left), L (center) and K (right). The
lower frame shows the `main event' of the impact by fragment R: after the fireball
has risen into telescopic view from beyond Jupiter's edge it can be seen in
reflected sunlight (e.g., Hubble Space Telescope images). At infrared wavelengths
we see at that time thermal emission from Jupiter's atmosphere, being heated
by plume material raining down onto the atmosphere. (Ref. Graham,
J.R., I. de Pater, J. G. Jernigan, M.C. Liu, and M.E. Brown, 1995, W.M.
Keck Telescope Observations of the Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 Fragment
R Jupiter Collision, Science, vol. 267, pp. 1320-1323)
 |
 |