Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Sep 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.1621w&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #16.21; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.415
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
2
Scientific paper
In the winter of 2007/2008 Comet 8P/Tuttle had its first good apparition since 1980. We report here on our CCD observations of the comet made over 9 nights in December and January with the Lowell Observatory Hall 1.1-m Telescope at Anderson Mesa, Arizona. The narrowband imaging revealed a strong spiral jet in the gas. Three successive arcs of the jet approximately centered in the sunward direction and extending more than 180 degrees in extent are clear in CN, while the innermost arc is seen in OH, NH, C2 and C3.
We have used measurements of the outward motion of the CN arcs to determine the rotational period of the comet. Using data from individual observing runs and assuming there is only one jet we find a period of 5.73 ± 0.02 hr for Dec 14-17, 5.73 ± 0.03 hr for Dec 29-31 and 5.71 ± 0.03 hr for Jan 14-15. Thus, the rotational period is stable over the 1-month time-span over which we observed it. Of particular note is that we have over 6 hours of data on the nights of Dec 15, 16, and 31, in each case allowing us to observe the outward motion of the arcs over an entire cycle, and also in each case the morphology clearly repeats in about 5.7 hours. These data are difficult to reconcile with the radar evidence of a bi-lobed nucleus with a period twice our result (IAUC 8909), as this seems to require two source regions of the same size and strength, located 180 degrees apart in longitude and at the same positive mid-latitude on the nucleus. Modeling to find a way to explain our data with an 11.4 hr period but without invoking this unlikely dual-source scenario is on-going.
This research is supported by NASA's Planetary Astronomy Program.
Bair Allison N.
Schleicher David G.
Woodney Laura
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