Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002agufm.p22d..12s&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2002, abstract #P22D-12
Physics
1224 Photogrammetry, 6007 Atmospheres: Structure And Dynamics, 6055 Surfaces And Interiors, 6210 Comets
Scientific paper
On September 22, 2001 the ion propulsion-powered NASA-JPL Deep Space 1 (DS1) spacecraft passed 2171 km from the nucleus of 19P/Borrelly with a relative velocity of 16.5 km/sec. The advanced technology Miniature Integrated Camera and Spectrometer (MICAS) aboard DS1, collected 25 high resolution images of the coma, jets and nucleus of the Jupiter-family short-period comet. These images were acquired at over a wide range of phase angles allowing detailed characterization of the surface topography of the nucleus, the three-dimensional characteristics of the coma, and the relationships between the two. The very low albedo, elongate nucleus exhibits large albedo variations and complex geology. Observations starting a few days before and extending up to encounter show a prominent jet emanating roughly normal to long axis of nucleus from a broad central depression into a direction about 35 degrees from the sun line (RA: 223 degrees and DEC: -15 degrees). Both fan-like and highly collimated jets are observed in the near-nucleus coma. The collimated jets have cylindrical cores (about 0.5 km x 5 km in dimension) and bubble-shaped bright bases; two are traceable to darker circular patches on the nucleus. The main jet is evidently co-aligned with the rotation axis. This places the sub-solar point only 30 degrees from the pole and, therefore, the pole is in constant sunlight around perihelion. Such an orientation for the pole would also represent a stable rotation of the nucleus around its short axis.
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