Ground-based Optical and Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Observations of Selected Comets

Details Ground-based Optical and Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Observations of Selected Comets Ground-based Optical and Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Observations of Selected Comets

Aug 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006iaujd..10e..31p&link_type=abstract

Progress in Planetary Exploration Missions, 26th meeting of the IAU, Joint Discussion 10, 21-22 August 2006, Prague, Czech Repub

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An outstanding question in modern astrophysics is understanding conditions extant in early protoplanetary disks during the epoch of planetesimal formation. In our own solar system, comets are frozen archives of this early epoch. Here we present preliminary results from our optical ground-based support and the Spitzer CY2 infrared observations of selected comets, both Jupiter-family and Oort Cloud members. The science driver of our CY2 program is the spectroscopic study of comets. However, interlacing multiple-order high resolution IR spectroscopy data to confirm the detection of narrow crystalline features requires properly correcting for slit losses. Proper determination of correction factors requires both contemporaneous infrared imaging and optical ground-based support observations to assess coma surface brightness. For select comets in our study, we used the Spitzer IRAC camera to obtain images at 4.5 and 7.9 microns and MIPS 24 (Multiband Imaging Photometer) for photometric information at 24 microns. These instruments can detect cometary nuclei and image coma to larger cometocentric distances and lower surface brightness flux densities. In addition, these images can also be used to investigate how coma activity and grain properties may be correlated with jets. A main goal of our ground-based support initiative was to obtain precise photometry at 0.7 microns, and from images determine the morphology of comet nuclei and near-nucleus structures (e.g. jets, structures in the coma surface brightness). The ground-based observations also enable mapping cometary activity over many rotation periods of the nuclei and to observe and assess how morphological changes evolve. Also our ground-based program provided data to improve orbital elements for Spitzer CY2 targets, especially recover a "lost" comet 71P/Clark, which we successfully observed on 2005 Dec 22 UT with the UH 2.2-m telescope, and the derivation of new orbital positions for two nuclei of comet C/2005 A1 Linear which split on 2005 July 05. Support for this work was provided by JPL/NASA contract #1278383.

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