Herbst, T.M., D.P. Hamilton, H. Böhnhardt and J.L. Ortiz 1995. Near
infrared imaging and spectroscopy of the SL-9 impacts from Calar
Alto. Geophys. Res. Let., 22, #17, 2413-2416.
Near infrared observations of the impacts of seven fragments of Comet
Shoemaker-Levy~9 with Jupiter show that precursor flashes are
ubiquitous and associated with phenomena at or near the time of
atmospheric entry. The comet fragments appear to be a heterogeneous
group: some impacts produced anomalously bright precursors, while
others were completely undetectable despite expectations based on
pre--collision images. Strong CO emissions in spectra taken near
maximum light point to hot molecular gas which cools within
minutes. Finally, images of the disk of Jupiter in the two months
after the collision show spreading of the impact structures at
approximately 1.5\deg~per day.
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