The GALEX Comets

Details The GALEX Comets The GALEX Comets

Sep 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dps....41.1511m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #15.11

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) has observed 6 comets since 2005 (C/2004 Q2 (Machholz), 9P/Tempel 1, 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 Fragments B and C, 8P/Tuttle and C/2007 N3 (Lulin)). GALEX is a NASA Small Explorer (SMEX) mission designed to map the history of star formation in the Universe. It is also well suited to cometary coma studies because of its high sensitivity and large field of view (1.2 degrees). OH and CS in the NUV (175 - 310 nm) are clearly detected in all of the comet data. The FUV (134 - 179 nm) channel recorded data during three of the comet observations and detects the bright C I 156.1 and 165.7 nm multiplets. We also see evidence of S I 147.5 nm emission in the FUV.
The GALEX data were recorded with photon counting detectors, so it has been possible to reconstruct direct-mode and objective grism images in the reference frame of the comet. We have also created software which maps coma models onto the GALEX grism images for comparison to the data.
We will present the data cleaned with automated catalog-based methods and a preliminary hand-fit to the data using simple Haser-based models. A more thorough hand-cleaning of the data from the contaminating effects of background sources is the last major reduction task to be done. This cleaning will allow quantitative parameter optimization of the models being fitted to the data.
The residuals between the data and models show interesting radial and azimuthal structure at large cometocentric distances (e.g. 50,000 - 250,000 km) in at least two comets (Machholz and Lulin). Due to the general lack of wide-field UV space-based imaging capabilities longward of H-Lyman alpha, GALEX provides some of the only data in this extended region of the UV cometary coma.

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