HST/FOS UV Observations of Chiron and Wirtanen

Details HST/FOS UV Observations of Chiron and Wirtanen HST/FOS UV Observations of Chiron and Wirtanen

Sep 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996dps....28.0805p&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #28, #08.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 28, p.1083

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We have used the Faint Object Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope (with the G270H grating, 2221 <= lambda <= 3301) to make ultraviolet studies of the comet P/Wirtanen and of the Centaur 2060-Chiron, which is possibly a former member of the Kuiper belt. The orbital parameters for the objects during the observations are given in the following table: Date Time No. V D Delta Solar Elong. (s) Exp. (mag) (AU) (AU) (degrees) Chiron 1996 Jan 23--24 4720 7 15.7 8.5 8.1 109 1996 Apr 13 1370 1 15.2 8.5 7.5 166 Wirtanen 1996 Jul 22 1430 1 19 2.7 1.8 152 The acquisition data show evidence that Wirtanen had a coma during the observation, but the data for Chiron are consistent with that of a point source. We present the color and geometric albedoes for Chiron and Wirtanen: Chiron is remarkably grey with a nuclear albedo of p=0.08 +/- 0.01 (assuming a radius of 90 km); Wirtanen's albedo is similarly grey with p<0.07 +/- 0.03 (assuming a radius of 1 km), an upper limit because an unknown fraction of flux is coming from the coma. We also will present the UV partial light curve of Chiron, obtained with the series of seven HST/FOS spectra taken in 1996 January over a time of 4 hours (about two-thirds of Chiron's synodic rotation period). There are no significant detections of coma emission (e.g., CS lambda 2576, Mgi lambda 2852, and OH lambda 3085) in either object, and the 3sigma upper limit for the OH lambda 3085 brightness of Wirtanen is {cal B} < 8 Rayleighs. In our poster we will report on upper limits for brightness and column density of coma species.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

HST/FOS UV Observations of Chiron and Wirtanen does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with HST/FOS UV Observations of Chiron and Wirtanen, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and HST/FOS UV Observations of Chiron and Wirtanen will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1461037