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A time sequence showing the impact of Fragment H of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 into Jupiter at approximately 19:35 GMT on July 18 1994. The upper left frame shows the planet just before impact. The satellite Ganymede is visible in the upper left corner, and the diffuse blob in the south is the site of previous impacts D and G. Equatorial stripes are visible as well as the bright polar caps at top and bottom. The second frame (upper right) shows the rising fireball just to the left of the previous impact site. In the third frame (lower left), taken about 7 minutes later, the fireball is near its maximum brightness. The fourth frame (lower right), taken 16 minutes after the third, shows a flattened and faded fireball. This is the eighth of more than 20 impacts occuring between July 16 and July 22.
Observers at Calar Alto:
Tom Herbst, Kurt Birkle, Ulrich Thiele
(Max-Plack-Institut fuer Astronomie, Heidelberg, Germany)
Doug Hamilton
(Max-Plack-Institut fuer Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Germany)
Hermann Boenhardt, Alex Fiedler, Karl-Heinz Mantel
(Universitaets Sternwarte Muenchen, Germany)
Jose Luis Ortiz
(Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Granada, Spain)
Giovanni Calamai, Andrea Richichi
(Osservatorio di Arcetri, Firenze, Italy)
Contact: Mark McCaughrean, Max-Planck-Institut fuer Astronomie
Koenigstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
Phone: (49) 6221 528 303
FAX: (49) 6221 528 246
e-mail mjm@mpia-hd.mpg.de (Internet)
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