Swift Grism Spectroscopy of Comet Lulin

Details Swift Grism Spectroscopy of Comet Lulin Swift Grism Spectroscopy of Comet Lulin

Sep 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dps....41.2306b&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #23.06

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The abundance of native ices in comet nuclei is a fundamental observational constraint in cosmogony. An important unresolved question is the extent to which the composition of pre-cometary ices varied with distance from the young Sun. By observing comets at a broad range of wavelengths (radio, sub-mm, IR, optical, UV, X-ray), we pursue to build a taxonomy based on cometary volatile composition instead of orbital dynamics [1].
The Swift space telescope [2] is unique in combining gamma ray, UV and X-ray instruments. Swift's UV-optical grisms (175-520 nm), which have not been extensively used before this campaign, encompass known cometary fluorescence bands (e.g., CO2+, OH, CO, NH, CS, CN, etc.) that can quantify and track the water and organic ice chemistry in the coma (see Figure 1). Until the scheduled repairs of HST's STIS, Swift is the sole space-borne observatory that can characterize the molecular composition of a comet at UV-optical wavelengths. Through its rapid cadence, Swift is perfectly suited to characterize changes in the temporal development and composition of released gas.
Swift/UVOT observed comet Lulin 16 times on January 28, February 16, and March 4 2009 for a total of 18.8 ksec, providing a unique dataset of X-ray and UV spectroscopy and imaging. We have developed a novel analytical procedure to reduce comet grism observations, and based on modeling of the coma, to derive absolute production rates of water, dust, and various minor gaseous species [3].
References
[1] Mumma M.J. et al (1993) in Protoplanets and Planets III, Univ. Ariz. Press, 1177
[2] Gehrels N. et al (2004) Ap.J.611, 1005
[3] Bodewits, D. et al. - submitted to AJ

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