Observations of 3.2-3.6 micron emission features in comet Halley

Details Observations of 3.2-3.6 micron emission features in comet Halley Observations of 3.2-3.6 micron emission features in comet Halley

Nov 1986

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1986apj...310l..49k&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 2 - Letters to the Editor (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 310, Nov. 1, 1986, p. L49-L53.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

56

Halley'S Comet, Infrared Spectra, Interstellar Matter, Abundance, Cosmic Dust, Formaldehyde, Methyl Alcohol

Scientific paper

Ground-based spectroscopic observations of the emission feature near 3.3 microns discovered in comet Halley by the Vega 1 spacecraft are reported. At a resolution of Delta gamma/gamma = 0.012 the emission consists of several components between 3.2 and 3.6 microns, and appears to be a superposition of C-H group bands. The feature is observed out to several thousand kilometers from the nucleus and does not appear to be thermal radiation from the grains responsible for the 4-20 micron continuum. Molecular scattering or emission by a component of cool (less than 400 K) grains would require near cosmic abundance of carbon. Hotter grains would radiate strongly enough to reduce the abundance requirement. The band shape is similar, but not identical, to interstellar absorption at 3.4 microns, to spectra of organic extracts from carbonaceous chondrites, and to spectra of some synthesized materials, such as 'QCCs' (as discussed by Sakata and colleagues in 1984). A newly found emission at 3.52 + or 0.02 microns is evidence for oxygen containing organic molecules, possibly formaldehyde or methanol.

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