Other
Scientific paper
Jan 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21544807r&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #448.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.455
Other
Scientific paper
Exploring the compositional diversity of cometary nuclei is key to understanding the formation and evolution of the Solar System, and the origin of water and prebiotic organics on the Earth. For most polyatomic gases, a production rate can be obtained from measured ro-vibrational intensities if an accurate rotational temperature is available, and the comparison of temperatures displayed by individual molecular species can reveal additional insights into physics in the cometary inner coma. Until now, accurate temperatures could be derived for HCN, CO, and H2O, but not for ethane (C2H6). As a symmetric hydrocarbon, C2H6 is uniquely sampled in the infrared, but the fine rotational structure of the ν7 Q-branches at 3.3 μm cannot be resolved by current infrared spectrometers, ultimately limiting the retrievals of rotational temperatures from these lines. However, the complex ro-vibrational structure (P- and R-branches) of the ν5 band at 3.5 μm is resolved by the Near Infrared Echelle Spectrograph on the Keck II telescope (NIRSPEC). We developed a fluorescence model for the infrared ν5 band of C2H6, and applied it to interpret high-resolution infrared spectra acquired with NIRSPEC. We present rotational temperatures and production rates for C2H6 in multiple comets. We compare the extracted rotational temperatures for ethane with those obtained from simultaneous measurements of other species (H2O and HCN). We also compare mixing ratios derived from the C2H6 ν5 band with those derived from the previously analyzed (by NASA GSFC team members) ν7 band. This work now establishes a robust method for quantifying additional physical parameters for ethane in comets.
A'Hearn Michael F.
Mumma Michael J.
Radeva Yana L.
Villanueva Geronimo L.
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