WISE Comets and the Outer Solar System

Details WISE Comets and the Outer Solar System WISE Comets and the Outer Solar System

Dec 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufm.p31b1535b&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #P31B-1535

Physics

[6000] Planetary Sciences: Comets And Small Bodies, [6210] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Comets, [6211] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Centaurs

Scientific paper

The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has surveyed over 99% of the sky at 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 microns. Since the successful launch of the spacecraft on December 14th of 2009, 110 comets and tens of outer solar system objects have been imaged. A sampling of Centaurs (minor planets with orbits between Jupiter and Neptune) out to 14 AU have been observed in the thermal IR, and 5 Centaurs and Scattered Disk Objects (SDOs) have been discovered by WISE. Over 16 comets have been discovered as well, some with perihelia beyond 7 AU, and 3 additional objects found to have previously unknown cometary activity, including a known Near Earth Asteroid. Several cometary targets of prior or future space mission encounters have also been observed. The WISE infrared observations, in combination with optical ground-based observations, yield size and albedo estimates of those cometary nuclei with low activity, as well as the Centaurs and SDOs. WISE observations of the more active bodies provide information regarding the particle size distribution of the dust. We will present our preliminary results concerning these populations, placing constraints on their composition, and evolution. Acknowledgements: This research was funded in part by the NASA (ROSES) NEOO program. WISE is a joint project between JPL and UCLA, with science data processing and archiving by Caltech's Infrared Processing and Analysis Center.

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