60 research outputs found
Rotation-stimulated structures in the CN and C3 comae of comet 103P/Hartley 2 around the EPOXI encounter
In late 2010 a Jupiter Family comet 103P/Hartley 2 was a subject of an
intensive world-wide investigation. On UT October 20.7 the comet approached the
Earth within only 0.12 AU, and on UT November 4.6 it was visited by NASA's
EPOXI spacecraft. We joined this international effort and organized an
observing campaign. The images of the comet were obtained through narrowband
filters using the 2-m telescope of the Rozhen National Astronomical
Observatory. They were taken during 4 nights around the moment of the EPOXI
encounter. Image processing methods and periodicity analysis techniques were
used to reveal transient coma structures and investigate their repeatability
and kinematics. We observe shells, arc-, jet- and spiral-like patterns, very
similar for the CN and C3 comae. The CN features expanded outwards with the
sky-plane projected velocities between 0.1 to 0.3 km/s. A corkscrew structure,
observed on November 6, evolved with a much higher velocity of 0.66 km/s.
Photometry of the inner coma of CN shows variability with a period of
18.32+/-0.30 h (valid for the middle moment of our run, UT 2010 Nov. 5.0835),
which we attribute to the nucleus rotation. This result is fully consistent
with independent determinations around the same time by other teams. The
pattern of repeatability is, however, not perfect, which is understendable
given the suggested excitation of the rotation state, and the variability
detected in CN correlates well with the cyclic changes in HCN, but only in the
active phases. The revealed coma structures, along with the snapshot of the
nucleus orientation obtained by EPOXI, let us estimate the spin axis
orientation. We obtained RA=122 deg, Dec=+16 deg (epoch J2000.0), neglecting at
this point the rotational excitation.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Astron. Astrophy
CN Morphology Studies of Comet 103P/Hartley 2
We report on narrowband CN imaging of Comet 103P/Hartley 2 obtained at Lowell
Observatory on 39 nights from 2010 July until 2011 January. We observed two
features, one generally to the north and the other generally to the south. The
CN morphology varied during the apparition: no morphology was seen in July; in
August and September the northern feature dominated and appeared as a mostly
face-on spiral; in October, November, and December the northern and southern
features were roughly equal in brightness and looked like more side-on
corkscrews; in January the southern feature was dominant but the morphology was
indistinct due to very low signal. The morphology changed smoothly during each
night and similar morphology was seen from night to night. However, the
morphology did not exactly repeat each rotation cycle, suggesting that there is
a small non-principal axis rotation. Based on the repetition of the morphology,
we find evidence that the fundamental rotation period was increasing: 16.7 hr
from August 13-17, 17.2 hr from September 10-13, 18.2 hr from October 12-19,
and 18.7 hr from October 31-November 7. We conducted Monte Carlo jet modeling
to constrain the pole orientation and locations of the active regions based on
the observed morphology. Our preliminary, self-consistent pole solution has an
obliquity of 10 deg relative to the comet's orbital plane (i.e., it is centered
near RA = 257 deg and Dec=+67 deg with an uncertainty around this position of
about 15 deg) and has two mid-latitude sources, one in each hemisphere.Comment: Accepted by The Astronomical Journal; 23 pages of text, 2 tables, 8
figure
The unusual volatile composition of the Halley-type comet 8P/Tuttle: Addressing the existence of an Inner Oort Cloud
We measured organic volatiles (CH4, CH3OH, C2H6, H2CO), CO, and water in
comet 8P/Tuttle, a comet from the Oort cloud reservoir now in a short-period
Halley-type orbit. We compare its composition with two other comets in
Halley-type orbits, and with comets of the "organics-normal" and
"organics-depleted" classes. Chemical gradients are expected in the
comet-forming region of the proto-planetary disk, and an individual comet
should reflect its specific heritage. If Halley-type comets came from the inner
Oort cloud as proposed, we see no common characteristics that could distinguish
such comets from those that were stored in the outer Oort cloud.Comment: 14 pages, including 1 figure and 2 Table
Uncorrelated Volatile Behavior during the 2011 Apparition of Comet C/2009 P1 Garradd
The High Resolution Instrument Infrared Spectrometer (HRI-IR) on board the Deep Impact Flyby spacecraft detected H2O, CO2, and CO in the coma of the dynamically young Oort Cloud comet C/2009 P1 (Garradd) post-perihelion at a heliocentric distance of 2 AU. Production rates were derived for the parent volatiles, Q_(H2O) = 4.6 ± 0.8 × 10^(28), Q_(CO2) = 3.9 ± 0.7 × 10^(27), and Q_(CO) = 2.9 ± 0.8 × 10^(28) molecules s^(–1), and are consistent with the trends seen by other observers and within the error bars of measurements acquired during a similar time period. When compiled with other observations of Garradd's dominant volatiles, unexpected behavior was seen in the release of CO. Garradd's H_2O outgassing, increasing and peaking pre-perihelion and then steadily decreasing, is more typical than that of CO, which monotonically increased throughout the entire apparition. Due to the temporal asymmetry in volatile release, Garradd exhibited the highest CO to H_2O abundance ratio ever observed for any comet inside the water snow line at ~60% during the HRI-IR observations. Also, the HRI-IR made the only direct measurement of CO_2, giving a typical cometary abundance ratio of CO_2 to H_2O of 8% but, with only one measurement, no sense of how it varied with orbital position
The Highly Unusual Outgassing of Comet 103P/Hartley 2 from Narrowband Photometry and Imaging of the Coma
We report on photometry and imaging of Comet 103P/Hartley 2 obtained at
Lowell Observatory from 1991 through 2011. We acquired photoelectric photometry
on two nights in 1991, four nights in 1997/98, and 13 nights in 2010/11. We
observed a strong secular decrease in water and all other observed species
production in 2010/11 from the 1991 and 1997/98 levels. We see evidence for a
strong asymmetry with respect to perihelion in the production rates of our
usual bandpasses, with peak production occurring ~10 days post-perihelion and
production rates considerably higher post-perihelion. The composition was
"typical", in agreement with the findings of other investigators. We obtained
imaging on 39 nights from 2010 July until 2011 January. We find that, after
accounting for their varying parentage and lifetimes, the C2 and C3 coma
morphology resemble the CN morphology we reported previously. These species
exhibited an hourglass shape in October and November, and the morphology
changed with rotation and evolved over time. The OH and NH coma morphology
showed hints of an hourglass shape near the nucleus, but was also enhanced in
the anti-sunward hemisphere. This tailward brightness enhancement did not vary
significantly with rotation and evolved with the viewing geometry. We conclude
that all five gas species likely originate from the same source regions on the
nucleus, but that OH and NH were derived from small grains of water and ammonia
ice that survived long enough to be affected by radiation pressure and driven
in the anti-sunward direction. We detected the faint, sunward facing dust jet
reported by other authors, and did not detect a corresponding gas feature. This
jet varied little during a night but exhibited some variations from night to
night, suggesting it is located near the total angular momentum vector.Comment: Accepted by Icarus; 20 pages of text (preprint style), 5 tables, 7
figure
Water in the Near IR spectrum of Comet 8P/Tuttle
High resolution spectra of Comet 8P/Tuttle were obtained in the frequency
range 3440.6-3462.6 cm-1 on 3 January 2008 UT using CGS4 with echelle grating
on UKIRT. In addition to recording strong solar pumped fluorescent (SPF) lines
of H2O, the long integration time (152 miutes on target) enabled eight weaker
H2O features to be assigned, most of which had not previously been identified
in cometary spectra. These transitions, which are from higher energy upper
states, are similar in character to the so-called 'SH' lines recorded in the
post Deep Impact spectrum of comet Tempel 1 (Barber et al., 2007). We have
identified certain characteristics that these lines have in common, and which
in addition to helping to define this new class of cometary line, give some
clues to the physical processes involved in their production. Finally, we
derive an H2O rotational temperature of 62+/- K and a water production rate of
(1.4+/-0.3)E28 molecules/s.Comment: Paper has been accepted for publication by MNRAS (11/06/09
Spitzer Observations of White Dwarfs: the Missing Planetary Debris Around DZ Stars
We report a Spitzer/IRAC search for infrared excesses around white dwarfs,
including 14 newly-observed targets and 16 unpublished archived stars. We find
a substantial infrared excess around two warm white dwarfs ---
J220934.84+122336.5 and WD 0843+516, the latter apparently being the hottest
white dwarf known to display a close-in dust disk. Extending previous studies,
we find that the fraction of white dwarfs with dust disks increases as the
star's temperature increases; for stars cooler than 10,000 K, even the most
heavily polluted ones do not have ~1000 K dust. There is tentative evidence
that the dust disk occurrence is correlated with the volatility of the accreted
material. In the Appendix, we modify a previous analysis to show that
Poynting-Robertson drag might play an important role in transferring materials
from a dust disk into a white dwarf's atmosphere.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal, 38 pages, 14
figures, 7 table
The Science of Sungrazers, Sunskirters, and Other Near-Sun Comets
This review addresses our current understanding of comets that venture close to the Sun, and are hence exposed to much more extreme conditions than comets that are typically studied from Earth. The extreme solar heating and plasma environments that these objects encounter change many aspects of their behaviour, thus yielding valuable information on both the comets themselves that complements other data we have on primitive solar system bodies, as well as on the near-solar environment which they traverse. We propose clear definitions for these comets: We use the term near-Sun comets to encompass all objects that pass sunward of the perihelion distance of planet Mercury (0.307 AU). Sunskirters are defined as objects that pass within 33 solar radii of the Sun’s centre, equal to half of Mercury’s perihelion distance, and the commonly-used phrase sungrazers to be objects that reach perihelion within 3.45 solar radii, i.e. the fluid Roche limit. Finally, comets with orbits that intersect the solar photosphere are termed sundivers. We summarize past studies of these objects, as well as the instruments and facilities used to study them, including space-based platforms that have led to a recent revolution in the quantity and quality of relevant observations. Relevant comet populations are described, including the Kreutz, Marsden, Kracht, and Meyer groups, near-Sun asteroids, and a brief discussion of their origins. The importance of light curves and the clues they provide on cometary composition are emphasized, together with what information has been gleaned about nucleus parameters, including the sizes and masses of objects and their families, and their tensile strengths. The physical processes occurring at these objects are considered in some detail, including the disruption of nuclei, sublimation, and ionisation, and we consider the mass, momentum, and energy loss of comets in the corona and those that venture to lower altitudes. The different components of comae and tails are described, including dust, neutral and ionised gases, their chemical reactions, and their contributions to the near-Sun environment. Comet-solar wind interactions are discussed, including the use of comets as probes of solar wind and coronal conditions in their vicinities. We address the relevance of work on comets near the Sun to similar objects orbiting other stars, and conclude with a discussion of future directions for the field and the planned ground- and space-based facilities that will allow us to address those science topics
The Main Belt Comets and ice in the Solar System
We review the evidence for buried ice in the asteroid belt; specifically the questions around the so-called Main Belt Comets (MBCs). We summarise the evidence for water throughout the Solar System, and describe the various methods for detecting it, including remote sensing from ultraviolet to radio wavelengths. We review progress in the first decade of study of MBCs, including observations, modelling of ice survival, and discussion on their origins. We then look at which methods will likely be most effective for further progress, including the key challenge of direct detection of (escaping) water in these bodies
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