Carbon monoxide in Jupiter after the impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9

A detailed analysis is presented of observations of the CO (2-1) line at 230 GHz in Jupiter performed with the IRAM 30 m telescope after the collision of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. Observations of site K, 33 h after impact, are focused on. Using independent information on the perturbed jovian stratospheric thermal profile, the CO column density, vertical distribution and total mass deposited at the K impact site are derived. It is found that CO is restricted to upper stratospheric levels, at pressures less than 50–200 μbar, with an average mixing ratio of about 1.5 × 10−4. The total CO mass is (1.5 ± 0.6) × 1014 g. It is shown that these results are generally consistent with observations of CO at other wavelengths. The K fragment mass is inferred to be in the range (1–10) × 1014 g, where the largest source of uncertainty comes from the unknown behavior of the cometary dust in the shock chemistry. Comparison with observations performed at IRAM over a 1 yr period following the impacts indicates that the CO mass brought into Jupiterʹs atmosphere by the SL9 fragments has remained approximately constant over this period.