Chiron's Spectrum at Outburst

Details Chiron's Spectrum at Outburst Chiron's Spectrum at Outburst

Nov 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001dps....33.1212b&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS Meeting #33, #12.12; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 33, p.1048

Physics

Geophysics

Scientific paper

2060 Chiron was the earliest discovered Centaur object. It remains the only Centaur with a visible coma. In June, 2001 we observed Chiron from the IRTF and UH 2.2m telescopes simultaneously at optical (VRI) and NIR wavelengths. At the time, Chiron was at a distance of 10.77 AU from the sun. Our data reveals that the Centaur was in a highly active state, with a visible coma, and Hv values of 5.63 (+/- 0.05) and colors V-R=0.26 (+/- 0.01), R-I= 0.32(+/- 0.03). The imaging data shows the coma was approximately 36000 km (4.5 arcsec) in extent. The activity departs from a recent trend of relative quiesence since perihelion where Hv values were observed as faint as 6.7. NIR spectra were obtained for the wavelengths between 1.0 and 2.5 μ m during the outburst event using the SpeX low resolution prism mode ({{{Δ λ } / λ } ~ 100} . Modeling of the NIR data is underway. We will discuss the implications of these results and the observed activity for the Centaur's composition and source of cometary behavior. Funding is in part provided by NASA grant Number NAGW-5015 and NASA's Planetary Geology & Geophysics Program.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Chiron's Spectrum at Outburst does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Chiron's Spectrum at Outburst, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Chiron's Spectrum at Outburst will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1236642