Formaldehyde in comets. I - Microwave observations of P/Brorsen-Metcalf (1989 X), Austin (1990 V) and Levy (1990 XX)

Details Formaldehyde in comets. I - Microwave observations of P/Brorsen-Metcalf (1989 X), Austin (1990 V) and Levy (1990 XX) Formaldehyde in comets. I - Microwave observations of P/Brorsen-Metcalf (1989 X), Austin (1990 V) and Levy (1990 XX)

Oct 1992

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992a%26a...264..270c&link_type=abstract

Astronomy and Astrophysics (ISSN 0004-6361), vol. 264, no. 1, p. 270-281.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

28

Austin Comet, Brorsen-Metcalf Comet, Comets, Formaldehyde, Millimeter Waves, Okazaki-Levy-Rudenko Comet, Abundance, Molecular Collisions, Molecular Energy Levels, Molecular Rotation, Radio Telescopes, Spatial Distribution

Scientific paper

We searched for several rotational lines of H2CO in comets P/Brorsen-Metcalf (1989 X), Okazaki-Levy-Rudenko (1989 XIX), Austin (1990 V), and Levy (1990 XX), using the IRAM 30-m millimeter radio telescope. The 3(12)-2(11) line at 226 GHz was unambiguously detected in Comets Austin and Levy, with a line shape in agreement with a coma expansion velocity of 0.8 km/s and enhanced production in the sunward-facing side of the nucleus. In an attempt to study the extension of the H2CO coma, a five-point crossing map around the presumed nuclear position was undertaken in Comets Austin and Levy. The spatial distributions do not exclude that part of the observed formaldehyde originates from a distributed source in the coma. The 226-GHz line intensities were converted into column densities, using a model treating infrared solar excitation and collisional excitation which is presented in detail in a Bockelee-Morvan and Crovisier (1992) paper. Production rates inferred in the assumption of release from the nucleus show that formaldehyde is a minor component of the nucleus with a abundance relative to water which could be variable from comet to comet: between 0.2 x 10 exp -3 and 0.5 x 10 exp -3 in Comet Levy, 10 exp -3 in Austin and 3 x 10 exp -3 in P/Brorsen-Metcalf. On the other hand, if formaldehyde is effectively produced by a distributed source, its abundance may reach 5 x 10 exp -3 in the three comets.

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