Twenty-three Years of Observations of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 from Mcdonald Observatory

Details Twenty-three Years of Observations of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 from Mcdonald Observatory Twenty-three Years of Observations of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 from Mcdonald Observatory

Sep 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.1603c&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #16.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.411

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We report on low-spectral resolution observations of comet 9P/Tempel 1, the target of NASA's Deep Impact Mission, from 1983, 1989, 1994 and 2005 using the 2.7m Harlan J. Smith telescope of McDonald Observatory. All of our observations were obtained at low-spectral resolution (11Å in 1983 and 7Å in all other years). The spectra covered emissions from CN, C3, C2, and CH. In 1994 and 2005, we also observed OH and NH, while in 1983 we also observed NH2. With the exception of the two nights following the impact in 2005, all of our observations were obtained pre-perihelion. Our observations allowed us to characterize the comet prior to the impact. From our spectra, we computed column densities as a function of cometocentric distance for all observed species and used a Haser model to compute production rates. We found that the comet showed a decrease in gas production from 1983 to 2005, with the decrease being different factors for different species. OH decreased by a factor of 2.7, NH by 1.7, CN by 1.6, C3 by 1.8, CH by 1.4 and C2 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, C3, CH and C2 ratioed to that of CN were constant over all of the apparitions and at all heliocentric distances; these ratios are consistent with Tempel 1 being a "normal” comet. 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.
This work was supported by NASA Grant NNG04G162G.

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