Numerical Modeling of the 2009 Impact Event on Jupiter

TL;DR

This study uses 3D hydrodynamics simulations to analyze the 2009 Jupiter impact, revealing differences in plume development compared to previous impacts and examining the chaos in impact dynamics.

Contribution

It provides new insights into impact plume characteristics and chaos at a higher incident angle, using detailed numerical modeling of the 2009 event.

Findings

Larger, faster plumes develop from 1 km impactors.

The 2009 impact's higher angle results in shallower impact depth and smaller plumes.

No significant difference in chaos compared to the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts.

Abstract

We have investigated the 2009 July impact event on Jupiter using the ZEUS-MP 2 three-dimensional hydrodynamics code. We studied the impact itself and the following plume development. Eight impactors were considered: 0.5 km and 1 km porous (\rho = 1.760 g cm^{-3}) and non-porous (\rho = 2.700 g cm^{-3}) basalt impactors, and 0.5 km and 1 km porous (\rho = 0.600 g cm^{-3}) and non-porous \rho = 0.917 g cm^{-3}) ice impactors. The simulations consisted of these bolides colliding with Jupiter at an incident angle of \theta = 69 degrees from the vertical and with an impact velocity of v = 61.4 km s^{-1}. Our simulations show the development of relatively larger, faster plumes created after impacts involving 1 km diameter bodies. Comparing simulations of the 2009 event with simulations of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 events reveals a difference in plume development, with the higher incident angle of the 2009 impact leading to a shallower terminal depth and a smaller and slower plume. We also studied the amount of dynamical chaos present in the simulations conducted at the 2009 incident angle. Compared to the chaos of the SL9 simulations, where \theta is approximately 45 degrees, we find no significant difference in chaos at the higher 2009 incident angle.