On the carbon abundance in Comet Halley derived from the 3 micron feature: Comparison with interstellar dust

Details On the carbon abundance in Comet Halley derived from the 3 micron feature: Comparison with interstellar dust On the carbon abundance in Comet Halley derived from the 3 micron feature: Comparison with interstellar dust

Sep 1988

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1988ioch.rept...85e&link_type=abstract

In NASA, Washington, Infrared Observations of Comets Halley and Wilson and Properties of the Grains p 85 (SEE N89-13330 04-89)

Computer Science

Carbon, Cosmic Dust, Emission Spectra, Halley'S Comet, Interstellar Matter, Stellar Spectra, Absorption Spectra, Abundance, Chemical Composition, Fluorescence, Hydrocarbons, Infrared Spectra, Resonance, Spectrum Analysis

Scientific paper

In spite of some similarities with the infrared features observed in the interstellar medium, the 3 micron signature observed in comet Halley's spectrum shows two distinct differences: (1) the 3.28 micron and 3.37 micron cometary features are both in emission, while the 3.37 micron interstellar feature is most often observed in absorption; and (2) there is no associated emission feature beyond 6 micron in the cometary spectrum. These two facts can be simply explained if it is assumed that the excitation mechanism is resonance fluorescence by the solar IR radiation field. With this assumption, it is found that hydrocarbons are present in roughly equal quantities in both the saturated forms, with a total carbon abundance of about 30 percent of H2O. This carbon abundance can be compared with the abundances derived for the interstellar dust when all condensed (or condensable) components are considered.

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