Modeling water emission induced by the Shoemaker-Levy 9/Jupiter catastrophic impact

We reconsider the water emission observed at 22.2 GHz by Cosmovici et al. (1996) during the Shoemaker-Levy 9/Jupiter impact. In contrast to the maser effect proposed by the authors, we discuss the detection in terms of thermal emission. A statistical equilibrium and radiative transfer model is constructed and the results that can be obtained depending on different input parameters are evaluated in the light of literature data.