Neutral cometary atmospheres. IV - Brightness profiles in the inner coma of comet Kohoutek 1973 XII

Details Neutral cometary atmospheres. IV - Brightness profiles in the inner coma of comet Kohoutek 1973 XII Neutral cometary atmospheres. IV - Brightness profiles in the inner coma of comet Kohoutek 1973 XII

Aug 1983

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1983apj...271..388d&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 271, Aug. 1, 1983, p. 388-397.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

25

Brightness Distribution, Coma, Cometary Atmospheres, Kohoutek Comet, Astrometry, Astronomical Spectroscopy, Comet Nuclei, Mass To Light Ratios, Molecular Interactions, Nitrogen Compounds, Oxygen, Comets, Atmosphere, Brightness, Comae, Kohoutek 1973 Xii, Spectra, Distribution, Analysis, Wavelengths, Gases, Formation, Composition, Comet Nuclei, Dust, Models, Density, Center Of Mass, Molecules

Scientific paper

Several spectrograms of comet Kohoutek taken at Lick Observatory have been analyzed in Toledo. The brightness distribution along the spectrograph slit has been measured for different wavelengths with a high spatial resolving power. The scale lengths for the destruction and for the production of NH2 are reported here for the first time; they are about the same and both close to 7 × 103 km at a heliocentric distance r = 0.465 AU, ruling out NH3 as parent. The profile of the λ6300 forbidden red line of oxygen indicates that the parent of O(1D) is produced in a source much smaller than 1000 km radius; so close to the nucleus, the NH2 (0, 8, 0) contribution to the red line is in the range 5%-15%. The observed center of maximum brightness for the dust (as well as for the NaD line) is shifted sunward by about 900 km with respect to the center of light of the neutral radicals, as well as to that of the ion H2O+. The common shift of dust and NaD is interpreted as a confirmation that Na is released by dust, whereas the spatial separation of dust and gas is interpreted by a fountain model acting sunward for the dust trajectories, while the nearly circular isophotes of the gaseous coma remain almost centered on the true nucleus. The model seems to be inconsistent with a dust density outside of the range (2.8 ± 0.3) g cm -3. The present results have important consequences for the astrometric positions used to compute cometary orbits (as well as for cometary missions by spacecraft) because they imply that, when a dusty comet is fully active in the inner solar system, its center of mass may be several arc seconds radially behind its center of brightness.

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