Distant Comets Photometry and Dust Modeling

Details Distant Comets Photometry and Dust Modeling Distant Comets Photometry and Dust Modeling

Sep 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.1614p&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #16.14; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.414

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Several comets have been observed to develop coma on their in-bound leg at heliocentric distances from 5.84 to 11.49 AU. We will present the observational evidence for their activity and propose an explanation based on experiments carried out on amorphous, gas-laden ice samples that are 0.1 to 100 microns thick and formed by flowing water vapor and CO onto a cold surface. The considerable gas emission occurs when the amorphous ice anneals before 135K, where it transforms into a crystalline structure. This activity was found experimentally to be associated with gas release during annealing of the gas-laden amorphous ice.
We observed and measured optical CCD photometry for two short-period and five long-period, dynamically new comets, that have enter the inner solar system directly from the Oort cloud for the first time. All of these comets have been observed pre-perihelion. Observations were done with the University of Hawaii 2.2-m telescope on Mauna Kea with the Tektronix 2x2K CCD camera through the Kron-Cousins B, V, R, I filter system.
In order to observationally distinguish the physical causes of activity, not only is it important to observe comets at large heliocentric distances, but also those that are dynamically new and on the in-bound leg of their orbits at distances beyond where the amorphous to crystalline ice phase transition can occur. This research includes observations of the level of nucleus activity as a function of distance.
We also would like to present Finson-Probstein (FP) dust modeling investigation on select comets. From the FP dust modeling of a cometary tail we can determine three basic parameters: the dust production rate, the particle distribution, and the emission velocity of the grains.

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