JUPITER AFTER THE 2009 IMPACT: HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE IMAGING OF THE IMPACT-GENERATED DEBRIS AND ITS TEMPORAL EVOLUTION
- Space Science Institute, 4750 Walnut Avenue, Suite 205, Boulder, CO 80301 (United States)
- Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
- Boston University, Boston, MA 02215 (United States)
- University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
- Universidad del PaIs Vasco, 48013 Bilbao (Spain)
We report Hubble Space Telescope images of Jupiter during the aftermath of an impact by an unknown object in 2009 July. The 2009 impact-created debris field evolved more slowly than those created in 1994 by the collision of the tidally disrupted comet D/Shoemaker-Levy 9 (SL9). The slower evolution, in conjunction with the isolated nature of this single impact, permits a more detailed assessment of the altitudes and meridional motion of the debris than was possible with SL9. The color of the 2009 debris was markedly similar to that seen in 1994, thus this dark debris is likely to be Jovian material that is highly thermally processed. The 2009 impact site differed from the 1994 SL9 sites in UV morphology and contrast lifetime; both are suggestive of the impacting body being asteroidal rather than cometary. Transport of the 2009 Jovian debris as imaged by Hubble shared similarities with transport of volcanic aerosols in Earth's atmosphere after major eruptions.
- OSTI ID:
- 21448693
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 715, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/715/2/L150; ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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