The Starbase One Astronomy & Space Collection/STARBASE_ONE.ISO/sl9/teide_h.txt

Text File | 1994-07-20 | 2KB | 36 lines

Teide Images of Fragment H Impact

The detection of a new impact with the telescopes of the Instituto de Astrofisica de
Canarias installed in Teide Observatory

Around 19:26UT (20:26 BST, 21:26 CET), Fragment H (14) of Comet
Shoemaker-Levy impacted with Jupiter. the Carlos Sanchez Telescope (1.52m
infrared telescope) and IAC-80 (an 82cm optical telescope) detected the explosion
when it reached the edge of the disc of the planet at 20:07UT. The mark left by the
explosion was almost as large as the Great Red Spot, that's to say, some 20 thousand
Kilometers in length.

Unlike the impact of Fragment A last Saturday, the explosion of Fragment H was
immediately visible through a filter tuned to the wavelength of methane gas, when it
reached the edge of the disc. the impact zone was immediately visible without having
to process the images. The brightness of the visible cloud was clearly superior to that
of Fragment A, which is logical given that Fragment H was one of the larger ones in
the comet.

As on previous occasions, the clouds were seen to project a considerable distance from
the edge of the planet, showing once more that they are at a very considerable altitude
in the atmosphere, well above the visible bands.

The infrared observations have confirmed the data obtained from visible observations,
showing, above all, the majestic procession of the cloud from Fragment G, followed
by the other, smaller clouds. As with the visible methane filter, the spots are seen to
be bright in the infrared as observed with the infrared camera of the Carlos Sanchez
Telescope.

Members of observation team, all from Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias: P.
Hammersly, M. Serra-Ricart, Nicholas Devaney, I. Vidal, J.M. Rodriguez-Espinosa,
P.L. Palle, M. Kidger, J.J. Fuensalida