Fragmentation modelling of the August 2019 impact on Jupiter

Abstract

On 7th August 2019, an impact flash lasting $\sim 1$s was observed on Jupiter. The video of this event was analysed to obtain the lightcurve and determine the energy release and initial mass. We find that the impactor released a total energy of $96-151$ kilotons of TNT, corresponding to an initial mass between $190-260$ metric tonnes with a diameter between $4-10$m. We developed a fragmentation model to simulate the atmospheric breakup of the object and reproduce the lightcurve. We model three different materials: cometary, stony and metallic at speeds of $60$, $65$ and $70$ km/s to determine the material makeup of the impacting object. The slower cases are best fit by a strong, metallic object while the faster cases require a weaker material.

arXiv comment10 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, Accepted for publication in MNRAS

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• First Earth-based Detection of a Superbolide on Jupiter
• Small impacts on the giant planet Jupiter
• Analysis of June 2, 2016 bolide event
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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Detection of a bolide in Jupiter's atmosphere with Juno UVS
• Solar Jet Hunter: a citizen science initiative to identify coronal jets in EUV data sets
• Detection of an extremely large impact flash on Jupiter by high-cadence multiwavelength observations
• Jovian Vortex Hunter: a citizen science project to study Jupiter's vortices
• The Dynamical Viability of an Extended Jupiter Ring System
• Modelling the optical energy profile of the 2021 October Jupiter impact flash
• Cloud reflection modelling for impact flashes on Jupiter: A new constraint on the bulk properties of the impact objects