Bibcode
Meech, K. J.; Pittichová, J.; Yang, B.; Zenn, A.; Belton, M. J. S.; A'Hearn, M. F.; Bagnulo, S.; Bai, J.; Barrera, L.; Bauer, J. M.; Bedient, J.; Bhatt, B. C.; Boehnhardt, H.; Brosch, N.; Buie, M.; Candia, P.; Chen, W.-P.; Chesley, S.; Chiang, P.; Choi, Y.-J.; Cochran, A.; Duddy, S.; Farnham, T. L.; Fernández, Y.; Gutiérrez, P.; Hainaut, O. R.; Hampton, D.; Herrmann, K.; Hsieh, H.; Kadooka, M. A.; Kaluna, H.; Keane, J.; Kim, M.-J.; Kleyna, J.; Krisciunas, K.; Lauer, T. R.; Lara, L.; Licandro, J.; Lowry, S. C.; McFadden, L. A.; Moskovitz, N.; Mueller, B. E. A.; Polishook, D.; Raja, N. S.; Riesen, T.; Sahu, D. K.; Samarasinha, N. H.; Sarid, G.; Sekiguchi, T.; Sonnett, S.; Suntzeff, N.; Taylor, B.; Tozzi, G. P.; Vasundhara, R.; Vincent, J.-B.; Wasserman, L.; Webster-Schultz, B.; Zhao, H.
Bibliographical reference
Icarus, Volume 213, Issue 1, p. 323-344.
Advertised on:
5
2011
Journal
Citations
15
Refereed citations
14
Description
We present observational data for Comet 9P/Tempel 1 taken from 1997
through 2010 in an international collaboration in support of the Deep
Impact and Stardust-NExT missions. The data were obtained to
characterize the nucleus prior to the Deep Impact 2005 encounter, and to
enable us to understand the rotation state in order to make a time of
arrival adjustment in February 2010 that would allow us to image at
least 25% of the nucleus seen by the Deep Impact spacecraft to better
than 80 m/pixel, and to image the crater made during the encounter, if
possible. In total, ˜500 whole or partial nights were allocated to
this project at 14 observatories worldwide, utilizing 25 telescopes.
Seventy percent of these nights yielded useful data. The data were used
to determine the linear phase coefficient for the comet in the R-band to
be 0.045 ± 0.001 mag deg-1 from 1° to 16°.
Cometary activity was observed to begin inbound near r ˜ 4.0 AU
and the activity ended near r ˜ 4.6 AU as seen from the
heliocentric secular light curves, water-sublimation models and from
dust dynamical modeling. The light curve exhibits a significant pre- and
post-perihelion brightness and activity asymmetry. There was a secular
decrease in activity between the 2000 and 2005 perihelion passages of
˜20%. The post-perihelion light curve cannot be easily explained
by a simple decrease in solar insolation or observing geometry. CN
emission was detected in the comet at 2.43 AU pre-perihelion, and by r =
2.24 AU emission from C2 and C3 were evident. In
December 2004 the production rate of CN increased from 1.8 ×
1023 mol s-1 to QCN = 2.75 ×
1023 mol s-1 in early January 2005 and 9.3 ×
1024 mol s-1 on June 6, 2005 at r = 1.53 AU.
Related projects
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