The Rotation Period of Comet P/Swift-Tuttle

Details The Rotation Period of Comet P/Swift-Tuttle The Rotation Period of Comet P/Swift-Tuttle

Dec 1995

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995aas...187.4209m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, 187th AAS Meeting, #42.09; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 27, p.1338

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

1

Scientific paper

Unfiltered CCD images of comet P/Swift-Tuttle were acquired on six consecutive nights from 25 November through 30 November 1992 with the 0.4m telescope at Limber Observatory. With an image scale of 0.804 arcsec/pixel, corresponding to about 775 km/pixel at the comet, details can be seen from dust ``jets'' in the coma to fine structure in the tail. Rotation periods of 63.0, 66.9, 69.7, 68.1, and 68.6 hours with formal errors on the order of 5 hours were derived by linear least-squares fitting to time sequences of the position angles of elliptical regions of the inner coma measured using the IRAF task ``imexamine'' for fitting radii of 3, 5, 10, 15, and 20 pixels, respectively. The average is 67.3 +/- 2.6 hours, which agrees very well with most published results. The apparent increase in rotation period with increasing radius shows up in contour plots as a twisting of the isophotes. There is a clear variation in the rate of change of the position angle with rotational phase which is related to the orientation of the rotation axis of the nucleus as projected onto the sky. These observations will be interpreted within the context of a model of the dusty environment surrounding comet P/Swift-Tuttle.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

The Rotation Period of Comet P/Swift-Tuttle does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with The Rotation Period of Comet P/Swift-Tuttle, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The Rotation Period of Comet P/Swift-Tuttle will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1253787