Bibcode
Campins, H.; Licandro, J.; Chamberlain, M.; Brown, R. H.
Bibliographical reference
American Astronomical Society, DPS Meeting #33, #31.08; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 33, p.1094
Advertised on:
11
2001
Citations
2
Refereed citations
1
Description
Jupiter family comets, Centaurs and Transneptunian Objects (TNOs) are
three populations of minor solar system objects that are believed to be
closely related. Information about the surface composition of these
objects is scarce yet essential to understanding the links between them.
Comet 28P/Neujmin 1 is among the largest and least active of the Jupiter
family comets (Campins et al. 1987, Astrophys. J. vol. 316, p. 847). We
observed this comet with the NICS instrument on the 3.6-m Telescopio
Nazionale Galileo (TNG). This instrumentation has already generated
spectra diagnostic of the composition of TNOs (Licandro et al. 2001
Astron. and Astrophys. vol. 373, p. L29). We obtained a low resolution
spectrum (R = 50) from 0.9 to 2.4 microns on June 1, 2001 UT. The
comet's heliocentric and geocentric distances were 5.4 and 4.8 AU,
respectively, and the phase angle was 9 degrees. A preliminary analysis
indicates that the spectral structure observed is not consistent with
that expected from water ice. Modeling of our spectrum is underway, but
no specific mineral has been identified yet. The absence of a clear
water ice signature in our spectrum is consistent with the results of
Campins et al. (1987), who estimated that only 0.1% - 0.3% of this
comet's surface is exposed water ice. This work was supported by NASA
and NSF.