Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2005
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005hia....13..501b&link_type=abstract
Highlights of Astronomy, Vol. 13, as presented at the XXVth General Assembly of the IAU - 2003 [Sydney, Australia, 13 - 26 July
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Diatomic sulfur was first discovered in comets during the close approach to Earth of comet IRAS-Araki-Alcock (C/1983 H1). The spatial distribution of S2 was restricted to within a few hundred kilometers of the nucleus consistent with S2 being a parent molecule. This molecule has been detected in comets Hyakutake (C/1996 B2) Lee (C/1999 H1) and recently in Ikeya-Zhang (C/2002 C1) leading to the conclusion that S2 is ubiquitous in comets.
The nature of the source of S2 in comets is not known. It has been proposed that S2 formed by irradiation of sulfur-bearing molecules in interstellar grain mantles implying that the grains were never heated above about 30 K at any time before or after their inclusion in the nucleus. Alternative mechanisms to produce S2 have been put forth including solar wind sputtering of coma grains and via fast chemical reactions in the inner coma. We will explore these formation mechanisms within the context of a global comet model including coma chemistry and molecular fluorescence and discuss the relevance of S2 to the total sulfur budget.
Support for this work was provided by NSF and the Universite de Franche-Comte.
Boice Daniel C.
Reyle Céline
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