Fragmentation modelling of the 2019 August impact on Jupiter

Abstract

On 7th August 2019, an impact flash lasting ∼ 1s 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 − 10m. 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.

Detection of a Bolide in Jupiter's Atmosphere With Juno UVS

“…A mass estimate of 250–5,000 kg seems broadly consistent with the altitude at which we observe the bright flash: 225 km above the 1‐bar level, or a pressure of 0.04 mbar. Numerical impact simulations have been used to estimate the altitudes of bolides in Jupiter's atmosphere, and have found that impactors with masses of ∼1 × 10 6 kg reach their peak brightness at 60–150 km above the 1 bar level (Hueso et al., 2013; Sankar et al., 2020). Smaller impactors, such as our observation, would not penetrate as deeply into the atmosphere.…”

“…

Impacts from objects in the 5-20 m diameter range occur more frequently and produce short bright flashes of light that can be observed by amateur astronomers on Earth but no observable debris (Hueso et al, 2018). Over a period of 8 years (2010-2017), amateur astronomers observed five of these smaller impacts, leading to an estimated impact rate of 10-65 per year (Hueso et al, 2018), an estimate that was not significantly modified by the observation of a sixth impact in 2019 (Sankar et al, 2020). On the smallest scales, the constant influx of dust particles equates to hundreds of thousands of tons of material per year (Poppe, 2016;Sremčević et al, 2005).While larger (>5 m) impacts can be observed from Earth, observations from orbiting spacecraft have the advantage of being able to detect the fainter flashes that are produced from the more frequent smaller impacts.

…”

Analysis of the April 13, 2021 bolide off the coast of Florida and Grand Bahama Island

“…Since the GLM records at a narrow bandpass, we need to scale the light curve to the full visual spectrum. We do this in a manner similar to Hueso et al (2013) and Sankar et al (2020), by determining the ratio of the spectral energy (taken to be similar to blackbody emission) released in the narrow band to the broadband,…”

“…A fragmentation model was run for this event using the same procedure as outlined in Sankar et al (2020), which utilizes the mechanics of fragmentation as described in Avramenko et al (2014), in addition to a gross fragmentation scheme, similar to Wheeler et al (2017). We use this model to determine the physical parameters of the meteor, such as density and material strength, and also to determine the post-breakup trajectory.…”

Detection of a bolide in Jupiter's atmosphere with Juno UVS

“…Impacts from objects in the 5-20 m diameter range occur more frequently and produce short bright flashes of light that can be observed by amateur astronomers on Earth, but no observable debris . Over a period of 8 years (2010-2017), amateur astronomers observed 5 of these smaller impacts, leading to an estimated impact rate of 10-65 per year , an estimate that was not significantly modified by the observation of a 6th impact in 2019 (Sankar et al, 2020). On the smallest scales, the constant influx of dust particles equates to hundreds of thousands of tons of material per year (Sremčević et al, 2005;Poppe, 2016).…”