Jupiter's Comet Crash: Unraveling the Splashback Mystery

Scientists used a fancy computer code called ZEUS-3D to figure out what happened when a comet named SL9 smashed into Jupiter. They added some special rules to make the code understand light and heat better. They found that a huge shock wave formed, which matched what we saw from space. This shock wave got really hot, and it explained why we saw special light from excited molecules. The splashback area cooled down as it spread out and sent light away. The model also matched what we saw with cameras that could see different colors of light.There was a really interesting part of the splashback called the "vanguard". This was like a shell of stuff moving really fast. Some of this stuff went sideways and made another shock wave. This explained some early signals we saw in the 2-micron light curves. The rest of the vanguard fell back and made some cool things happen, like CO emission and a bright flash at 0. 9 microns. The model also showed some smaller bumps or "bounces" that matched what we saw.