Crystalline Silicates and the Spectacular Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught)

Details Crystalline Silicates and the Spectacular Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) Crystalline Silicates and the Spectacular Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught)

Dec 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007aas...211.5601k&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #211, #56.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.827

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

1

Scientific paper

The great comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) amazed many Earth-based observers with an impressive dust tail ejected during its close approach to the Sun (perihelion distance 0.17 AU). We present two mid-infrared spectra of the dynamically new Oort Cloud comet McNaught, taken with the Spitzer Space Telescope using the IRS instrument. We obtained a 5-38 μm spectrum when the comet was 3.6 AU (post-perihelion) from the Sun, and a 7-38 μm spectrum at 4.0 AU from the Sun (post-perihelion). The spectra show silicate emission above a smooth continuum at 10 and 20 μm. The silicate flux-to-continuum ratio at 10 μm is 1.14 ± 0.03 at 3.6 AU and 1.21 ± 0.05 at 4.0 AU -- similar to the approximately 10% excess reported by Lisse et al. (2007, IAUC 8862) in Spitzer spectra taken at 2.4 AU (post-perihelion). There is no evidence for emission from crystalline silicates in our spectra. We fit our spectra with a thermal model for comet dust and derive upper-limits to the crystalline silicate content. The paucity of crystals is somewhat surprising for an Oort Cloud comet that ejected large amounts of micron and sub-micron sized dust at perihelion, possibly passing through the inner-solar system for the first time. We present our thermal models and discuss scenarios which might explain the mineral content.
Support for this work was provided by NASA through a contract issued by JPL/Caltech to the University of Central Florida.

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