Activity of Comet 103P/Hartley 2 at the time of the EPOXI mission fly-by

Bibcode
2013Icar..222..766T
DOI
10.1016/j.icarus.2012.05.037
Meech, Karen; Tanga, Paolo; Licandro, J.; Bó, Marco Del; Boehnhardt, Hermann; Brucato, John Robert; Lara, Luisa; Patriarchi, Patrizio; Hainaut, Olivier R.; Epifani, Elena Mazzotta; Tozzi, Gian Paolo
Bibliographical reference

Icarus, Volume 222, Issue 2, p. 766-773.

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2
2013
Journal
ICARUS
Number of authors
11
IAC number of authors
1
Citations
5
Refereed citations
5
Description
Comet 103P/Hartley 2 was observed on November 1-6, 2010, coinciding with the fly-by of the space probe EPOXI. The goal was to connect the large scale phenomena observed from the ground, with those at small scale observed from the spacecraft. The comet showed strong activity correlated with the rotation of its nucleus, also observed by the spacecraft. We report here the characterization of the solid component produced by this activity, via observations of the emission in two spectral regions where only grain scattering of the solar radiation is present. We show that the grains produced by this activity had a lifetime of the order of 5 h, compatible with the spacecraft observations of the large icy chunks. Moreover, the grains produced by one of the active regions have a very red color. This suggests an organic component mixed with the ice in the grains.
Related projects
Project Image
Minor Bodies of the Solar System
This project studies the physical and compositional properties of the so-called minor bodies of the Solar System, that includes asteroids, icy objects, and comets. Of special interest are the trans-neptunian objects (TNOs), including those considered the most distant objects detected so far (Extreme-TNOs or ETNOs); the comets and the comet-asteroid
Julia de
León Cruz
In progress
Type
Refereed
Exoplanetary Systems & Solar System (SEYSS)

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