Mathematics – Probability
Scientific paper
Oct 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.4801s&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #48.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.507
Mathematics
Probability
Scientific paper
Narrowband filter photometry of Comet 96P/Machholz 1 was obtained on 4 nights at Lowell Observatory during the comet's 2007 apparition. Production rates of OH, CN, C2, C3, and NH were derived from these data sets, and relative abundances, expressed as ratios of production rates with respect to OH (a measure of the water abundance), were compared to those measured in other comets. Comet Machholz 1 is shown to be depleted in CN by about a factor of 200 from average, while C2 and C3 are also low but "only” by factors of 10-20 from "typical” composition, i.e. comparable to the most strongly carbon-chain depleted comets reported by A'Hearn et al. (1995; Icarus 118, 223). In contrast, NH is near the upper end of its normal range. This extremely low CN-to-OH ratio for Machholz 1 indicates that it is either compositionally associated with Comet Yanaka (1988r; 1988 Y1) which was strongly depleted in CN and C2 but not NH2 (Fink, 1992; Science 257, 1926), or represents a new compositional class of comets, since Yanaka had a much greater depletion of C2 (>100×) than does Machholz 1. It remains unclear if these comets formed at a location in our solar system with unusual conditions and a low probability of being gravitationally perturbed into the inner solar system, or if one or both objects are interstellar interlopers. These and other results will be presented. This research is supported by NASA's Planetary Astronomy Program.
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