Other
Scientific paper
Nov 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001dps....33.2006m&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS Meeting #33, #20.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 33, p.1075
Other
8
Scientific paper
As part of a long-term observing campaign to look at the activity in distant comets, data have been obtained on a number of short-period comets for comparison. Here we present the data for comet 2P/Encke, the first CONTOUR mission target, from 1985 through the present, sampling 6 apparitions. The comet nucleus has a color which is typical of other short period comets, all of which lie in the range from mV-mR = 0.3-0.6 mag. Its coma is particularly lacking in micron-sized grains when beyond 2 AU from the Sun; the dust coma is hardly apparent at visible wavelengths. Heliocentric light curves, however, indicate that the comet is definitely active near every aphelion, sometimes appearing as many as 2 magnitudes brighter intrinsically. The comet never shows an extended coma near aphelion so all the dust is confined to the seeing disk, presumably in the form of large, slow-moving grains. We will present heliocentric data from the last six apparitions, limits on the aphelic dust production, and speculation on the physical mechanism behind the phenomenon. This work was supported by NASA Grants NAGW-5015 and NAG5-4495.
Fernandez Yanga
Meech Karen Jean
Pittichova Jana
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