Computer Science
Scientific paper
Dec 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011icar..216..449c&link_type=abstract
Icarus, Volume 216, Issue 2, p. 449-461.
Computer Science
Scientific paper
SWAN, the all-sky hydrogen Lyman-alpha camera on the SOHO spacecraft, designed primarily to image the interplanetary neutral hydrogen around the Sun, also observes comets continuously over large portions of their apparitions to the north and south of the ecliptic and at small solar elongation angles. Because of SOHO's location at the L1 Lagrange point, analysis of SWAN images provides excellent temporal coverage of water production. We report here our results of observations of some interesting target comets selected from the extensive SWAN archive. These include three Oort Cloud Comets C/2002 V1 (NEAT), C/2002 X5 (Kudo-Fujikawa), C/2006 P1 (McNaught) and three apparitions of atypical short-period Comet 96P/Machholz 1. The common aspect of these four comets is their small perihelion distances, which are 0.19, 0.09, 0.17, and 0.12 AU, respectively. Their water production rates over their whole apparitions can be approximated by power laws in heliocentric distance (r in AU) as follows: 1.3 × 1029 r-2.1 s-1 for C/2002 V1 (NEAT), 7.5 × 1028 r-2.0 s-1 for C/2002 X5 (Kudo-Fujikawa), 5.4 × 1029 r-2.4 s-1 for C/2006 (P1 McNaught) and 4.6 × 1027 r-2.1 s-1 for 96P/Machholz 1. We also present daily-average water production rates for the long-period comets over long continuous time periods. We examine these results in light of our growing survey of comets that is yielding some interesting comparisons of water production rate variations with heliocentric distance and taxonomic classes.
Bertaux Jean Loup
Boyd Z.
Combi Michael R.
Lee Yeonbae
Mäkinen Teemu T. J.
No associations
LandOfFree
SOHO/SWAN observations of comets with small perihelia: C/2002 V1 (NEAT), C/2002 X5 (Kudo-Fujikawa), 2006 P1 (McNaught) and 96P/Machholz 1 does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with SOHO/SWAN observations of comets with small perihelia: C/2002 V1 (NEAT), C/2002 X5 (Kudo-Fujikawa), 2006 P1 (McNaught) and 96P/Machholz 1, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and SOHO/SWAN observations of comets with small perihelia: C/2002 V1 (NEAT), C/2002 X5 (Kudo-Fujikawa), 2006 P1 (McNaught) and 96P/Machholz 1 will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1425749