Spitzer CY3 ToO Comet Initiative

Details Spitzer CY3 ToO Comet Initiative Spitzer CY3 ToO Comet Initiative

May 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006sptz.prop30069w&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #30069

Physics

Scientific paper

We propose to observe a bright Oort Cloud (OC) comet at five different heliocentric distances (r_h) ranging from 7 to 2 AU, beginning within a year of discovery as a target of opportunity (ToO). From large to small r_h, some molecular species (e.g., CO) have significant contributions from extended (non-nuclear) sources, suggested to arise from an unknown grain component. Our investigation will characterize the dust grains that are potential carriers of the distributed sources. We will constrain the grain parameters, including their temperatures, size distributions, and relative mineral abundances by fitting thermal emission models to IRS spectral energy distributions. Coma morphologies and nuclear fluxes will be extracted from IRAC or MIPS images. We aim to constrain and compare the dust properties in the coma during three stages of cometary activity: 1) distant activity, 2) coma onset, and 3) vigorous activity. In doing so, we investigate the potentially crucial roles that dust grains play in warming volatile ices and in the nature of distributed coma sources, and the role gas production plays in transporting dust grains into coma. Understanding the nature of distributed sources and investigating the co-dependence of dust properties and activity are essential to translating coma abundances into nuclear abundances. The composition of cometary nuclei reveals their origins and physical conditions in the early solar nebula during planet formation. This ToO proposal was awarded CY2 telescope time (PID 20105), but was not triggered as no appropriate comet was discovered that met our observational and scientific criteria.

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