Chandra's Close Encounter with the Disintegrating Comet SW3/73P

Details Chandra's Close Encounter with the Disintegrating Comet SW3/73P Chandra's Close Encounter with the Disintegrating Comet SW3/73P

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.1210w&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #12.10; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.1295

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

On May 23, 2006 we used the ACIS-S instrument on Chandra to study the X-ray emission from the fragment B of comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3. By 2006, This comet had split into at least 43 tracked elements and countless additional pieces as detailed in recent Spitzer and HST observations. It also passed closer to the Earth in May 2006 than any comet yet detected in the X-ray. We obtained a total of 20 ks of observation time of fragment B, and have contemporaneous ACE and SOHO solar wind physical data. The Chandra data allow us to spatially resolve the detailed structure of the interaction zone between the solar wind and the coma at a resolution of 75 km, and determine the solar wind velocity structure in the mass-loading zone at the coma edge. We detect 2 peaks in the X-ray data that may indicate emission from separate comet fragments. Preliminary spectral results show strong detections of charge exchange lines of solar wind minor ions C IV, C V, O VIII, O VII, N VII, N VI, Ne VIII and Ne XI. We are currently investigating if the line ratios change as a function of distance from the nucleus. The spectral interpretation is simplified relative to previous comets because ACE/SOHO are almost in directly upstream of the comet, providing a very good measure of the state of the solar wind.

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