Radar Observations of Comet 103P/Hartley 2

Details Radar Observations of Comet 103P/Hartley 2 Radar Observations of Comet 103P/Hartley 2

Jun 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011apj...734l...2h&link_type=abstract

The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 734, Issue 1, article id. L2 (2011).

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

6

Comets: General, Comets: Individual: 103P/Hartley 2, Techniques: Radar Astronomy

Scientific paper

Comets rarely come close enough to be studied intensively with Earth-based radar. The most recent such occurrence was when Comet 103P/Hartley 2 passed within 0.12 AU in late 2010 October, less than two weeks before the EPOXI flyby. This offered a unique opportunity to improve pre-encounter trajectory knowledge and obtain complementary physical data for a spacecraft-targeted comet. 103P/Hartley 2 is only the fourth comet nucleus to be imaged with radar and already the second to be identified as an elongated, bilobate object based on its delay-Doppler signature. The images show the dominant spin mode to be a rotation about the short axis with a period of 18.2 hr. The nucleus has a low radar albedo consistent with a surface density of 0.5-1.0 g cm-3. A separate echo component was detected from large (>cm) grains ejected anisotropically with velocities of several to tens of meters per second. Radar shows that, in terms of large-grain production, 103P/Hartley 2 is an unusually active comet for its size.

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