Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2008-09-02
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Accepted for publication in Icarus. 21 total manuscript pages including 8 tables and 4 figures
Scientific paper
10.1016/j.icarus.2008.08.015
We report on low-spectral resolution observations of comet 9P/Tempel 1 from 1983, 1989, 1994 and 2005 using the 2.7m Harlan J. Smith telescope of McDonald Observatory. This comet was the target of NASA's Deep Impact mission and our observations allowed us to characterize the comet prior to the impact. We found that the comet showed a decrease in gas production from 1983 to 2005, with the the decrease being different factors for different species. OH decreased by a factor 2.7, NH by 1.7, CN by 1.6, C$_{3}$ by 1.8, CH by 1.4 and C$_{2}$ by 1.3. Despite the decrease in overall gas production and these slightly different decrease factors, we find that the gas production rates of OH, NH, C$_{3}$, CH and C$_{2}$ ratioed to that of CN were constant over all of the apparitions. We saw no change in the production rate ratios after the impact. We found that the peak gas production occurred about two months prior to perihelion. Comet Tempel 1 is a "normal" comet.
Barker Edwin S.
Caballero Marcos D.
Cochran Anita L.
Gyorgey-Ries Judit
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