Understanding the Kreutz Sungrazing Comets

Details Understanding the Kreutz Sungrazing Comets Understanding the Kreutz Sungrazing Comets

Sep 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.2002k&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #20.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.516

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We present updated results of our photometric study of the Kreutz family comets observed by SOHO-LASCO. This is a continuation of earlier work by Biesecker et al. (2002) and includes all Kreutz comets which reached perihelion in the SOHO-LASCO field of view by the end of 2005, a sample of over 900 comets. Typical Kreutz light curves brighten at a relatively constant rate, reach a peak in brightness at 10-13 solar radii (prior to perihelion), then fade rapidly, with a small subset displaying a second (smaller) peak in brightness inside of 6 solar radii. We are attempting to explain these light curve features using physical models of the nucleus such as composition, density, porosity, and production rates and will report on our findings. We are also investigating the relationship between Kreutz comets and other comets observed by SOHO-LASCO (the sungrazing families: Meyer, Marsden, and Kracht, and other non-sungrazing comets) and with observations of prominent sungrazers seen from the ground, e.g. Ikeya-Seki (1965 f), to estimate production rates at larger heliocentric distances. From these rates we hope to improve the scaling relationship between size and apparent brightness and constrain the size distribution of the Kreutz family.
This research was supported by NASA Planetary Atmospheres grant NAG513295.

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