Sodium emission from Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 in the magnetosphere of Jupiter |
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| Authors: | V V Prokof’eva V P Tarashchuk Yu T Tsap |
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| Institution: | (1) Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, p/o Nauchnyi, Crimea, 334413, Ukraine |
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| Abstract: | On July 20, 1994, before the Q fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 fell to Jupiter, more than 200 spectra of the Jovian features were obtained at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in the wavelength range 5700–7600 Å with a 26 s exposure time and a spectral resolution of 20 Å. We found a time-varying Na D line emission in the form of two components with Doppler shifts of about 30 Å. The brightest and most frequent sodium flares were detected when the Q fragments passed through the Jovian inner magnetosphere at a distance of about three the Jovian radii (3RJ) from its center, where they crossed the Io-Jupiter current tube. A frequency analysis of our data revealed a flare recurrence time scale of 1 min. We conclude that sodium was released from the cometary dust and from the surfaces of numerous cometary debris and that its amount was enough to produce the observed emission. The observed high-speed clouds of sodium atoms are assumed to have been formed through ionization, ion acceleration by the bidirectional electric fields of Alfvén waves in the Io-Jupiter current tube, and their neutralization. |
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| Keywords: | Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 Jupiter sodium |
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