THE EFFECT OF COMET SHOEMAKER-LEVY-9 ON JUPITER SYNCHROTRON-RADIATION

Solid material from comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 is expected to modify Jupit er's decimetric radio emission. Electrons passing through dust grains suffer a degradation in their energy, while larger sized material abso rbs all electrons impinging on it. If there is enough dust and/or larg er sized material in the magnetosphere, the effect on the energetic el ectrons can be observed via their synchrotron radiation, emitted at mi crowave frequencies. The planet's radio emission is expected to decrea se, and the presence of dust induces a hardening in the radio spectrum . We expect the intensity to decrease immediately after cometary mater ial enters the radiation belts; the radio emission continues to drop f or many months as electrons diffuse inwards through a dusty magnetosph ere. Radio observations of the planet during and after the cometary im pact thus yield information on the amount of cometary material (optica l depth of the dust and macroscopic material), impacts between cometar y material and Jupiter's ring, and the diffusion process of energetic electrons through the magnetosphere.