Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-12T21:25:34.741Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fragmentation of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's Nuclei During Flight Through the Jovian Atmosphere

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2018

Z. Sekanina
Z. Sekanina*
Affiliation:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Fragmentation dominates the ablation process of cometary type impactors during their atmospheric flight. Models that account for it imply that a kilometer-sized nuclear fragment of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 has disintegrated almost completely by the time of its terminal explosion, at a pressure level of <1 bar. This result, consistent with impact scenarios based on precursor-event timings, suggests that the initial masses of two fragments, K and R, were between 7×1014 and 5×1015grams apiece.

Type
X. Cometary Dust
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 150: Physics, Chemistry and Dynamics of Interplanetary Dust , 1996 , pp. 383 - 386
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1996

References

Borovička, J. & Spurný, P. 1995, Icarus, submittedGoogle Scholar
Boslough, M. B., Crawford, D. A., Robinson, A. C. & Trucano, T. G. 1994, GRL, 21, 1555 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boslough, M. B., Crawford, D. A., Trucano, T. G. & Robinson, A. C. 1995, GRL, 22, 1821 Google Scholar
Bronshten, V. A. 1983, Physics of Meteoric Phenomena. Dordrecht: Reidel, 52Google Scholar
Carlson, R. W. et al. 1995, GRL, 22, 1557 Google Scholar
Chapman, C. R. et al. 1995, GRL, 22, 1561 Google Scholar
Chodas, P. W. 1995, personal communicationGoogle Scholar
Graham, J. R., de Pater, I., Jernigan, J. G., Liu, M. C. & Brown, M. E. 1995, Science, 267, 1320 Google Scholar
Hammel, H. B. et al. 1995, Science, 267, 1288 Google Scholar
Kompaneets, A. S. 1960, Sov. Phys. Dokl., 5, 46 Google Scholar
McCrosky, R. E., Posen, A., Schwartz, G. & Shao, C.-Y. 1971, JGR, 76, 4090 Google Scholar
Nicholson, P D. et al, 1995a, GRL, 22, 1613Google Scholar
Nicholson, P. D. et al. 1995b, GRL, 22, 1617Google Scholar
Sekanina, Z. 1983, AJ, 88, 1382; errata: AJ, 89, 185 Google Scholar
Sekanina, Z. 1995, in European Shoemaker-Levy 9/Jupiter Workshop, R. M. West & H. Boehnhardt, Garching bei Miinchen: ESO, 29Google Scholar
Watanabe, J.-i. et al. 1995, PASJ, 47, L21 Google Scholar