THE BEHAVIOR OF FRAGMENTS OF COMET SHOEMAKER-LEVY-9 IN THE ATMOSPHEREOF JUPITER

Studies of the entry of fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 into the a tmosphere of Jupiter give conflicting predictions as to whether or not most of the energy is deposited above the clouds. Using analytical mo dels we find that for a typical fragment radius of 1.5 km, both decele ration and mass loss (ablation) are negligible above the 1 bar level, so most of the energy will be deposited below the clouds, where radiat ion is blocked from escaping. The bulk of the energy produced by enter ing fragments will be observable only if the energy deposited below th e clouds is transported above the clouds by means other than radiation . We provide new calculations of the flattening of fragments by ram pr essure, of radiation-driven evaporative ablation, and of ablation of d roplets formed by Kelvin-Helmholtz instability.