Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Oct 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.5315g&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #53.15; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.522
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
1
Scientific paper
Comets are thought to be the most chemically primitive objects in the solar system, retaining icy volatiles from the epoch of planet formation. Compositional variations among the Oort Cloud population may indicate nebular processing and nebular transport mechanisms. CH4 is a particularly volatile molecule (comparable to CO) that should sublimate at temperatures near 30 K if it is not trapped in a water ice matrix. Both CO and CH4 have been found to be highly variable among the comet population1. However, their abundances among a sample of 8 Oort Cloud comets do not correlate. This may indicate non-thermal processing of early volatiles. We present CSHELL data from May/June 2004 for two additional comets: C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) and C/2001 Q4 (NEAT). We observed multiple transitions of CH4 toward C/2002 T7 and have used them to determine the rotational temperature. We also discuss the complexity of simultaneously measuring rotational temperature and spin temperature when components of the three spin states (A, E, and F) are blended.
This work is supported by the NASA Planetary Astronomy Program under RTOP 344-32-98.
1Gibb et al. 2003, Icarus, 165, 391
Bonev Boncho P. .
DiSanti Michael A.
Gibb Erika Lynne
Magee-Sauer Karen
Mumma Michael
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