Laboratory Astronomy Needs for the Study of Dust in Comets in the Next Decade

Details Laboratory Astronomy Needs for the Study of Dust in Comets in the Next Decade Laboratory Astronomy Needs for the Study of Dust in Comets in the Next Decade

May 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21424202l&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #214, #242.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.744

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The Spitzer Space Telescope observed the mid-IR ( 5-40 µm) spectra of ejecta from the hypervelocity impact of the Deep Impact projectile with comet 9P/Tempel-1. Spectral modeling demonstrates that there are abundant minerals present in the ejecta including Ca/Fe/Mg-rich silicates, carbonates, phyllosilicates, water ice, amorphous carbon, and sulfides (Lisse et al. 2006). Other Infrared Space Observatory (ISO), Spitzer, and Akari observations provide evidence for large reservoirs of these dusty species not only in comets, but in related reservoirs: Centaurs, Kuiper Belt objects, and exo-solar Kuiper Belts. In the next 5 years, we can expect SOFIA, ASTRO-H and JWST measurements to build on these results in the mid-IR. Consistency with STARDUST sample return findings has bolstered confidence in these remote sensing results (Flynn et al. 2008). However, precise mineralogical identifications are hampered by the lack of detailed spectral measurements, particularly of transmission and of the associated derived absorption coefficient, for astrophysically relevant materials in the 3 - 40 µm range over which Spitzer, etc. sensitive.
The upcoming Herschel Space Observatory mission will open up a new wavelength range, collecting mineralogically-characteristic far-IR emission spectra of comet dust populations in the range of 57 - 210 µm using its Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS), and out to 650 um using its Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE). Many astrophysically important minerals (e.g., pyroxenes, carbonates, phyllosilicates, water ice) have potentially distinctive, but poorly quantified, PACS-range emission features that are sensitive to chemical composition and crystal structure. Mineral identifications have often been based on a single strong mid-IR feature lack confidence [Molster & Waters 2003], which can be bolstered by measuring multiple complementary far-IR features. Full laboratory spectroscopic knowledge of candidate materials, as for the mid-IR case, is needed to fully understand the Herschel observations.

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