The Light Curve Of The Dust Cloud Ejected By The Collision Between The Deep Impact Projectile And The Nucleus Of Comet 9P/Tempel 1

Details The Light Curve Of The Dust Cloud Ejected By The Collision Between The Deep Impact Projectile And The Nucleus Of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 The Light Curve Of The Dust Cloud Ejected By The Collision Between The Deep Impact Projectile And The Nucleus Of Comet 9P/Tempel 1

Oct 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.2102k&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #21.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.449

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

When Deep Impact fired its projectile into the nucleus of comet 9P/Tempel 1, a cloud made of dust and icy grains was ejected from the impact crater. The dust was subsequently accelerated by gas drag. About a week after the impact event, the dust cloud had dispersed due to its expansion and the force exerted by solar radiation pressure.
The light curve of the dust cloud contains information about its formation and evolution: The time scale of production of impact created material can be derived from the time scale of the brightness increase. The velocity distribution of the cloud is indicative of acceleration processes in the inner coma of the comet. Finally, the abundance of large dust particles created by the impact can be estimated from the brightness of the cloud several days after the impact when small particles have been pushed away by radiation pressure.
Here we analyze data obtained by the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of OSIRIS onboard the ESA spacecraft Rosetta to derive the velocity distribution of the dust cloud from an inversion of its light curve. OSIRIS observed comet Tempel 1 near-continuously for more than two weeks around the impact. A model of the expansion of the ejecta is compared to the light curve seen by the NAC.
We derive a broad velocity distribution of the dust particles, which peaks at around 225 m/s, in good agreement with published estimates. The velocities suggest that the impact ejecta were quickly accelerated by gas in the cometary coma. We will discuss implications of our results for the evolution of the dust cloud during the first hours after the impact and provide estimates of the released dust mass.
OSIRIS is funded by the agencies ASI, CNES, DLR, the Spanish Space Program (Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia), SNSB, and ESA.

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