Spectroscopy of 46 P/Wirtanen during its 1997 apparition

Details Spectroscopy of 46 P/Wirtanen during its 1997 apparition Spectroscopy of 46 P/Wirtanen during its 1997 apparition

Jul 1998

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998a%26a...335l..37f&link_type=abstract

Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.335, p.L37-L45 (1998)

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

19

Comet Spectrophotometry, Wirtanen, Production Rates, Dust

Scientific paper

Comet 46P/Wirtanen was observed during five observing runs around its perihelion passage from 1997 January 28 to June 02. The spectra acquired extend from 5200 to 10000 Angstroms at spectral resolutions of 12 Angstroms and 18 Angstroms. A total of 16 spectral averages, each comprising about 40 minutes of integration time, were obtained. The production rate of H2O near perihelion averaged 2.7 x 10(28) molecules/sec. The continuum strength Afρ was 129 cm while the production rates respectively of the parents of C2, CN and NH2 were 5.7, 3.2 and 5.6 x 10(25) molecules/sec. Our estimated error for all these quantities is 20%. The production rate ratios relative to water can be compared to our larger sample of comets (Fink & Hicks 1996) with the following results: the C2 and CN abundance ratios are slightly below average but the NH2 ratio is definitely enhanced putting P/Wirtanen among the top few comets in that category. Its Afrho /H2O ratio is very close but slightly below the median of our comet sample. Reduced to 1 AU P/Wirtanen ranks near the 40% level of our ordered list of the H2O production rates of 20 comets. If the production rate of water is combined with P/Wirtanen's estimated radius of 0.6 km, it implies that virtually the whole surface area of the comet is active. Our measured Afrho values combined with those obtained by photometry yield a fairly tight heliocentric activity dependence of r(-3.8) with no pre-post perihelion asymmetry. This agrees well with the general heliocentric brightness dependence of Jupiter family comets. Taking all this data together, P/Wirtanen appears to be a rather typical member of the Jupiter family of comets.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Spectroscopy of 46 P/Wirtanen during its 1997 apparition 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 Spectroscopy of 46 P/Wirtanen during its 1997 apparition, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Spectroscopy of 46 P/Wirtanen during its 1997 apparition will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1341212