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Whately Images of Fragment K & L Impacts

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The images above show a time sequence of the "L" impact observed through a 2.23 -- 2.29um filter in daylight with the NICMASS camera at the 0.4m Whately Observatory. The sequence begins at the upper left and ends at the lower right. Each frame is an average of 10 0.6s exposures lasting 25 seconds in total. The sequence of mid-frame times is 22:15:43, 22:16:51, 22:17:35, 22:18:40, 22:19:40, 22:20:15, 22:21:12, 22:22:10, 22:54:10, 22:24:00, 22:24:53, 22:26:50. By frame 22:54:10 the brighness of the impact region matched that of Io. By the last frame in this sequence (just before the array saturated in the 2.23 - 2.29 filter) the impact region was 10 times brighter than Io. The bright spot to the right (west) of the "L" impact region is the "K" impact site. The region continued to brighten after 22:27, reaching a peak at 22:31. At peak brightness, observations through a 1% 2.29um filter saturated as well, suggesting that the peak was at least 30 times brighter than Io. Click here to see a plot of the initial brightening in units of the brightness of Io. The uncertainty for the unsaturated points is 0.05.

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