ROSAT Observations of X-ray Emissions from Jupiter During the Impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
J. H. Waite Jr. 1,
G. R. Gladstone 1,
K. Franke 1,
W. S. Lewis 1,
A. C. Fabian 2,
W. N. Brandt 2,
C. Na 1,
F. Haberl 3,
J. T. Clarke 4,
K. C. Hurley 5,
M. Sommer 3, and
S. Bolton 6
1 Department of Space Science, Southwest Research Institute, P.O. Box 28510, San Antonio, TX 77228-0510, USA.
2 Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 OHA, UK.
3 Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Postfach 1603, D-85740 Garching, Germany
4 Space Physics Research Laboratory, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
5 Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
6 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA.
Röntgensatellit (ROSAT) observations made shortly before and during the collision of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter show enhanced x-ray emissions from the planet's northern high latitudes. These emissions, which occur at System III longitudes where intensity enhancements have previously been observed in Jupiter's ultraviolet aurora, appear to be associated with the comet fragment impacts in Jupiter's southern hemisphere and may represent brightenings of the jovian x-ray aurora caused either by the fragment impacts themselves or by the passage of the fragments and associated dust clouds through Jupiter's inner magnetosphere.
Submitted on October 18, 1994
Accepted on April 7, 1995
