Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
May 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21640903f&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #216, #409.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.816
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
We present an analysis of the behavior of comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1, a Centaur that is continuously active and suffers frequent but unpredictable outbursts as it revolves in a near-circular orbit 6 AU from the Sun. We obtained broadband, visible-wavelength imaging of 29P's dust coma in 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2008. At every epoch, the comet was fortuitously in outburst, as evidenced by the changing brightness and morphology of the comet's dust. The changes occurred on daily and weekly timescales. Here we follow up an earlier analysis of the 2002 dataset [1] and present more detail on our 2008 dataset [2]. Arcsecond-scale imaging from five consecutive nights in September lets us understand the dynamics of the dust grains emitted in the outburst. We are using a Monte Carlo dust model [3] that reproduces the features seen in the coma. We present preliminary results from our modeling effort on the constraints to dust and to the source regions on the nucleus. We also compare this outburst to previously studied outbursts by 29P. References: [1] Ellis, C.E., et al. 2004, BAAS 36, 1146. [2] Fernandez, Y.R., et al. 2008, IAUC 8991. [3] Samarasinha 2000, ApJ 529, L107.
Fernandez Yanga R.
Mueller Beatrice E. A.
Samarasinha Nalin H.
Woodney Laura M.
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