NH3 Production In Comet C/2002 T7 LINEAR

Details NH3 Production In Comet C/2002 T7 LINEAR NH3 Production In Comet C/2002 T7 LINEAR

Sep 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.2901m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #29.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.534

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We observed Comet C/2002 T7 LINEAR (C/T7) from 3-9 May 2004 using CSHELL at the NASA/IRTF. High-resolution spectra of parent volatiles were acquired, emphasizing the oxygen, hydrocarbon, and nitrile chemistry. A major goal was to detect and measure the relative abundance of NH3. At infrared wavelengths, NH3 is difficult to detect since it requires a significant geocentric velocity to shift the strongest NH3 emissions out of the terrestrial atmospheric water absorption. The high Doppler shift (- 65 km/s) of C/T7 during early May made it an excellent target for searching NH3. Several lines of the Q-branch and R-branch of the ν1 band were detected.
NH3 is the dominant (observable) nitrogen-containing volatile in comets, present at 1% relative to water. Previously at infrared wavelengths, a single line of the ν1 band near 3-μm was detected in comet C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp, and a more secure infrared detection was achieved in 153P/Ikeya-Zhang. Our 153P NH3 spectra showed that the NH3 molecule was not rotationally relaxed as previously thought and that a different model was needed to predict line g-factors. Our goal for observing NH3 in C/T7 was to observe a range of rotational levels and transitions to test a newer rotationally equilibrated model for NH3.
This paper presents results of that test based on spectra obtained for C/T7. We present production rates and relative abundances to water for C/T7 and we apply this model to our other NH3 detections from past comets. We also compare our results with NH3 production rates reported from radio observations by other groups.
We gratefully acknowledge support from the NSF RUI Program to KM-S and the NASA PAST to MJM, MAD, and NDR.

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