VLT observations of comet 46P/Wirtanen

Details VLT observations of comet 46P/Wirtanen VLT observations of comet 46P/Wirtanen

Jun 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002a%26a...387.1107b&link_type=abstract

Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.387, p.1107-1113 (2002)

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

9

Comets: Individual: 46P/Wirtanen, Comets: General

Scientific paper

Comet 46P/Wirtanen, prime target of ESA's ROSETTA mission, was successfully observed at the Very Large Telescope Observatory in Chile: on 17 May 1999 with the Test Camera at the Cassegrain focus of the 8.2-m VLT Kueyen telescope and on 8 December 2001 with FORS1 at Unit Telescope 4 Yepun. May 1999: no coma was detected at heliocentric distance r = 4.98 AU. From the measured brightness in the Bessell R-filter, a mean nucleus radius of 555+/-40 m is derived (for a geometric albedo of 0.04 and a phase darkening of 0.04 mag/deg). The nucleus signal varies during the 2.7 h observing interval and a peak-to-peak amplitude of ~ 0.38 mag is determined. The measured lightcurve is in agreement with a rotation period of 6-7.5 hours and a ratio of the main nucleus axes of at least 1.4. The non-detection of a coma allows one to put an approximate upper limit for Afrho of <0.45 cm (suggesting a dust production rate of 0.05 kg/s). December 2001: a weak and condensed coma seems to be present in the seeing disk of the comet at 2.9 AU inbound, causing a higher brightness than expected from the previous size estimates of the nucleus. The colour of the comet appears very red (V-R spectral gradient ~ 47%/100 nm). The Afrho value of the comet was 6.5+/-2 cm (equivalent to a dust production rate of about 1 kg/s). Based on observations obtained at the VLT Observatory Cerro Paranal of European Southern Observatory ESO in Chile.

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