Radio-wavelength Investigations of the Great Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) Near Perihelion

Details Radio-wavelength Investigations of the Great Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) Near Perihelion Radio-wavelength Investigations of the Great Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) Near Perihelion

Oct 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.4808b&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #48.08; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.508

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Surprising us by its rapid brightening near perihelion which made it visible in broad daylight, the "Great Comet of 2007", C/2006 P1 (McNaught), was observed with the Nançay and Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM-30m) radio-telescopes on late notice. This dynamically new Oort cloud comet reached perihelion at 0.17 AU from the Sun on 12.7 January 2007 with a total visual magnitude around -5.
The OH radical lines at 18-cm were observed at Nançay between 10 and 20 January. They were marginally detected on 13.5 and 19.5 Jan. 2007. An evaluation of the OH production rate is difficult because of the particular excitation of the OH radical so close to the Sun. A tentative value of Q[OH] is 5E30 molec./s on 19.5 Jan.
The comet was observed with the IRAM-30m between 15 and 17 January around 0.23 AU from the Sun. We report on the detection of HCN, HNC, CS, CH3OH, H2CO and HCO+ and marginally CH3CN and HDO in this comet. The preliminary HCN production rate is Q[HCN]=5E28 molec./s on 16.5 January, twice that of comet Hale-Bopp at its perihelion. It varied as rh^-6 during the period of observation.
The relative molecular abundances at 0.23 AU from the Sun are estimated to be: (HCN:HNC:CS:CH3OH:H2CO:CH3CN:HDO:CO) = (1:0.1:1.5:5:2.3:0.1:0.25:<15)
The mean gas expansion velocity was estimated from the line widths between 1.2 km/s (H2CO, CS) and 1.5 km/s (CH3OH, HCN). The measured rotational temperatures vary between 80 K (CH3OH) and 150 K (HCN). Comparison with other comets and constraints obtained on molecular photodissociation rates will be discussed.

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