Water Brought In To Jupiter's Atmosphere
By Fragments R And W Of Comet Sl-9

ANN L. SPRAGUE

Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721
sprague@lpl.arizona.edu
fax 520-621-4933

G.L.BJORAKER

GSFC, Greenbelt, Maryland

D.M.HUNTEN

Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721
dhunten@lpl.arizona.edu

F.C.WITTEBORN

NASA Ames Research Center
Moffett Field, CA 94035

R.W.H. KOZLOWSKI

Physics Department
Susquehanna University
Selinsgrove, PA 17870

D.H.WOODEN

NASA Ames Research Center
Moffett Field, CA 94035

Measurements of H2O in the impact plumes of the R and W fragments of Comet SL-9 were made from the Kuiper Airborne Observatory. Water emissions peaked ~12 minutes after the impacts, and indicate a temperature ~1000 K based upon the relative radiances of two H2O emission features at 6.62 and 6.45 microns. Our analysis shows that the water was probably delivered by Comet SL-9 and is not of jovian origin, and that the C/O ratio in the plume was less than unity. Our calculations, which allow for entrainment of jovian air, show that the R impactor had a diameter of ~300 m containing water ice equivalent to a sphere 60 m in diameter.

KAO Observations of Fragments R, V, and W into Jupiter, July 21-22, 1994 /html>