Credit: Hunter Waite, Randy Gladstone, and Southwest Research Institute
X-ray Emission from a Cometary Impact
This is a soft X-ray image of Jupiter obtained by the High Resolution
Imager (HRI) on the ROSAT X-ray
observatory. This image includes data obtained both before and during the
impact of comet
Shoemaker-Levy 9 in July, 1994. This image shows the local-time
behavior of Jovian X-ray emissions, and indicates that both the auroral and
newly-discovered equatorial X-rays are much brighter on the afternoon
(right) side than on the morning (left) side of the planet, perhaps
indicating the presence of a magnetosphere-wide dusk-to-dawn electric
field.
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Page Author: Dr. Michael F.
Corcoran
Last modified June 28, 2001
