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WISE/NEOWISE observations of comet 103P/Hartley 2 | | James M. Bauer
; Russell G. Walker
; A. K. Mainzer
; Joseph R. Masiero
; Tommy Grav
; John W. Dailey
; Robert S. McMillan
; Carey M. Lisse
; Yan R. Fernández
; Karen J. Meech
; Jana Pittichova
; Erin K. Blauvelt
; Frank J. Masci
; Michael F. A'Hearn
; Roc M. Cutri
; James V. Scotti
; David J. Tholen
; Emily DeBaun
; Ashlee Wilkins
; Emma Hand
; Edward L. Wright
; WISE Collaboration
; | | Date: |
13 Jul 2011 | | Abstract: | We report results based on mid-infrared photometry of comet 103P/Hartley 2
taken during May 4-13, 2010 (when the comet was at a heliocentric distance of
2.3 AU, and an observer distance of 2.0 AU) by the Wide-field Infrared Survey
Explorer (Wright et al. 2010). Photometry of the coma at 22 microns and data
from the University of Hawaii 2.2-m telescope obtained on May 22, 2010 provide
constraints on the dust particle size distribution, dlogn/dlogm, yielding
power-law slope values of alpha = -0.97 +/- 0.10, steeper than that found for
the inbound particle fluence during the Stardust encounter of comet 81P/Wild 2
(Green et al. 2004). The extracted nucleus signal at 12 microns is consistent
with a body of average spherical radius of 0.6 +/- 0.2 km (one standard
deviation), assuming a beaming parameter of 1.2. The 4.6 micron-band signal in
excess of dust and nucleus reflected and thermal contributions may be
attributed to carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide emission lines and provides
limits and estimates of species production. Derived carbon dioxide coma
production rates are 3.5(+/- 0.9) imes 10^24 molecules per second. Analyses
of the trail signal present in the stacked image with an effective exposure
time of 158.4 seconds yields optical-depth values near 9 x 10^-10 at a delta
mean anomaly of 0.2 deg trailing the comet nucleus, in both 12 and 22 {mu}m
bands. A minimum chi-squared analysis of the dust trail position yields a
beta-parameter value of 1.0 x10^-4, consistent with a derived mean trail-grain
diameter of 1.1/{
ho} cm for grains of {
ho} g/cm^3 density. This leads to a
total detected trail mass of at least 4 x 10^10 {
ho} kg. | | Source: | arXiv, 1107.2637 | | Services: | Forum | Review | PDF | Favorites | |
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