THE IMPACT OF COMET SL9 WITH JUPITER - IR OBSERVATIONS AT TIRGO

Infrared images of Jupiter have been obtained on 5 nights before, duri ng and shortly after the period of the impacts of the fragments of com et Shoemaker-Levy 9 (1993e) with the giant planet. Long lived bright s pots produced by the impacts have been measured and analyzed. By measu ring the intensity variation of the spots as a function of Jupiter rot ation we show that these spots ace likely constituted by large and thi n clouds of dust located above the methane layer. The IR relative albe dos has been also measured for some of these spots.