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First Comet Observations with NIRSPEC-2 at Keck: Outgassing Sources of Parent Volatiles and Abundances Based on Alternative Taxonomic Compositional Baselines in 46P/Wirtanen
Villanueva, Geronimo L.; Cochran, Anita L.; Bodewits, Dennis +18 more
A major upgrade to the NIRSPEC instrument at the Keck II telescope was successfully completed in time for near-infrared spectroscopic observations of comet 46P/Wirtanen during its exceptionally close flyby of Earth in 2018 December. These studies determined the abundances of several volatiles, including C2H2, C2H
Cold Traps of Hypervolatiles in the Protosolar Nebula at the Origin of the Peculiar Composition of Comet C/2016 R2 (PanSTARRS)
Mousis, Olivier; Aguichine, Artyom; Bouquet, Alexis +4 more
Recent observations of the long-period comet C/2016 R2 (PanSTARRS; hereafter R2) indicate an unusually high N2/CO abundance ratio, typically larger than ∼0.05, and at least 2-3 times higher than the one measured in 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Another striking compositional feature of this comet is its heavy depletion in H2O (H…
The Coma Dust of Comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina): A Window into Carbon in the Solar System
Woodward, Charles E.; Russell, Ray W.; Kelley, Michael S. P. +3 more
Comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina) was a dynamically new Oort cloud comet whose apparition presented a favorable geometry for observations near close-Earth approach (≃0.93 au) at heliocentric distances ≲2 au when insolation and sublimation of volatiles drive maximum activity. Here we present mid-infrared 6.0 ≲ λ(µm) ≲ 40 spectrophotomet…
Six Outbursts of Comet 46P/Wirtanen
Duev, Dmitry A.; Southworth, J.; Bellm, Eric C. +33 more
Cometary activity is a manifestation of sublimation-driven processes at the surface of nuclei. However, cometary outbursts may arise from other processes that are not necessarily driven by volatiles. In order to fully understand nuclear surfaces and their evolution, we must identify the causes of cometary outbursts. In that context, we present a s…
FUV Observations of the Inner Coma of 46P/Wirtanen
Parker, Joel Wm.; Harris, Walter M.; Bodewits, Dennis +6 more
Far-ultraviolet observations of comets yield information about the energetic processes that dissociate the sublimated gases from their primitive surfaces. Understanding which emission processes are dominant, their effects on the observed cometary spectrum, and how to properly invert the spectrum back to the composition of the presumably pristine s…
A Case for a Small to Negligible Influence of Dust Charging on the Ionization Balance in the Coma of Comet 67P
Rubin, M.; Vigren, E.; Eriksson, A. I. +3 more
A recent work aided by Rosetta in situ measurements set constraints on the dust-to-gas mass emission ratio and the size distribution of dust escaping the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko near perihelion. Here we use this information along with other observables/parameters as input into an analytical model aimed at estimating the number d…