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RESEARCH PRODUCT

UKIRT Observations of the Impact and Consequences of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 on Jupiter☆

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The observation of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's collision with Jupiter in July of 1994 by the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) produced spectroscopic data of high quality. Analysis of the data for Impact C has produced the first temperature curve that covers such an event, from the first visibility of the plume above the limb through to the settling down of the ejected gas onto the upper jovian atmosphere. Temperatures derived from methane emission show that 5 min after impact, a plume some 6500 km across was heated to similar to 1400 K. At its maximum spatial extent similar to 12 min after impact, a region of Jupiter's atmosphere similar to 45,000 km west from the impact site of the main Fragment C nucleus was heated sufficiently to show methane emission. Observations of impact sites from one jovian day onward showed that hot methane remained or was produced above the sites at least until July 27. (C) 1997 Academic Press