Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2005
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005dps....37.4411l&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #37, #44.11; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 37, p.1568
Other
Scientific paper
The nucleus of comet 9P/Tempel 1 was observed with the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys (HST/ACS) in May 2004, in an effort to pin down its rotational period and assist in the preparation of the operations of the Deep Impact mission. The observations were performed from May 7.9 to 9.5, 2004, and extended over a 39-hour period. At the mid-point of the observing window, the comet was 3.52 AU from the Sun , 4.03 AU from the Earth and at a phase angle of 13.5 deg. The program consisted in 18 separate visits, each one corresponding to an HST orbit and including 3 identical exposures of 857 sec duration with the F606W broadband filter. These very deep exposures revealed a point-source object, albeit the nucleus, without any coma. Photometry was performed by PSF fitting, the required (model) PSFs being generated with the TinyTim software. The mean V magnitude of the nucleus was 21.85 and had an amplitude of 0.45 mag indicating that we were seeing the varying cross-section of a rotating, elongated body. There is a very clear asymmetry between the two half-periods of the light curve with one minimum being much deeper than the other. The periodicity was analyzed with six different techniques yielding a rotational period in the range 38.32 to 42.68 hr, and resulting in a mean value of 41.0 hr.
A'Hearn Michael F.
Lamy Philippe L.
Toth Ignác
Weaver Harold A.
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