Ultraviolet Observations of Cometary Methanol

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Hst Proposal Id #3582

Scientific paper

We plan to observe a bright target-of-opportunity comet (TBD) using grating G130H on the FOS. Our intent is to search for methanol emission in the 1400-1608 A region. Methanol has been identified in other comets by its IR and radio wave transitions, but has not yet been identified in the UV region. There are two electronic (Rydberg) transitions of methanol, with bandheads at 1606.9 A and at 1492.5 A, which in absorption are not dissociative transitions. It has been proposed that the production rate for methanol, as derived from the IR and radio wave measurements, is about 0.01 that of H2O. With sensitive observations emission at these UV wavelengths from methanol should be detectable. Such a detection would be a significant precedent for other UV searches of larger organic parent molecules in comets. These observations will be accompanied by high resolution IR measurements, with the goal of definitively correlating the electronic transitions observed in the UV with the vibrational transitions seen in the IR. We expect that the combination of UV and IR spectral measurements will significantly advance our understanding of the organic 3.4 micron band observed previously in comets.

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