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Airfall on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Zacny, Kris; Bodewits, Dennis; Vincent, Jean-Baptiste +11 more
We here study the transfer process of material from one hemisphere to the other (deposition of airfall material) on an active comet nucleus, specifically 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Our goals are to: 1) quantify the thickness of the airfall debris layers and how it depends on the location of the target area, 2) determine the amount of H2…
High precision meteor observations with the Canadian automated meteor observatory: Data reduction pipeline and application to meteoroid mechanical strength measurements
Weryk, Robert J.; Stober, Gunter; Vida, Denis +3 more
Context. The mirror tracking system of the Canadian Automated Meteor Observatory (CAMO) can track meteors in real time, providing an effective angular resolution of 1 arc second and a temporal resolution of 100 frames per second. Aims. We describe the upgraded hardware and give details of the data calibration and reduction pipeline. We investigate…
Monitoring the negative polarization in Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann during quiescence
Kim, Sungsoo S.; Videen, Gorden; Zubko, Evgenij +4 more
During five nights between February 3 and 10, 2021, we monitored the degree of linear polarization in Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann with the broadband R filter. It is the first polarimetric investigation of this comet measured during a period of quiescent activity. We found a nearly constant negative polarization PQ ≈ -2.1% at α ≈ 9.5°…
High-fidelity comet 67P ephemeris and predictions based on Rosetta data
Weryk, Robert; Farnocchia, Davide; Micheli, Marco +2 more
Because of observational biases and outgassing, comets are notoriously challenging in terms of trajectory estimation and ephemeris predictions. We used tracking data collected by ESA's Rosetta mission at 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko to derive 10-m level constraints on the distance between the Earth and 67P in 2014 and 2016, which, together with high-…
Modification of icy planetesimals by early thermal evolution and collisions: Constraints for formation time and initial size of comets and small KBOs
Jutzi, Martin; Golabek, Gregor J.
Comets and small Kuiper belt objects are considered to be among the most primitive objects in the solar system as comets like C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp are rich in highly volatile ices like CO. It has been suggested that early in the solar system evolution the precursors of both groups, the so-called icy planetesimals, were modified by both short-lived …