First JWST spectrum of distant activity in Long Period Comet C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos)

Colin Snodgrass; Carrie E. Holt; Michael S. P. Kelley; Cyrielle Opitom; Aurélie Guilbert-Lepoutre; Matthew M. Knight; Rosita Kokotanekova; Emmanuel Jehin; Elena Mazzotta Epifani; Alessandra Migliorini; Cecilia Tubiana; Marco Micheli; Davide Farnocchia

First JWST spectrum of distant activity in Long Period Comet C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos)

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2025-05-07 v2

Authors: Colin Snodgrass , Carrie E. Holt , Michael S. P. Kelley , Cyrielle Opitom , Aurélie Guilbert-Lepoutre , Matthew M. Knight , Rosita Kokotanekova , Emmanuel Jehin , Elena Mazzotta Epifani , Alessandra Migliorini , Cecilia Tubiana , Marco Micheli , Davide Farnocchia

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Abstract

We observed the new Long Period Comet C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos), inbound at 7 au from the Sun, using the NIRSpec integral field unit on JWST. The spectrum shows absorption features due to water ice in the coma and evidence for CO $_2$ driven activity, with a production rate of $Q(CO_2) = 2.546 \pm 0.019 \times 10^{25}$ molecules s $^{-1}$ , and no emission features of water or CO. The latter is surprising, given that CO is more volatile than CO $_2$ , and suggests that this comet may have lost its near-surface CO during its early evolution, before implantation in the Oort cloud.

Keywords

JWST NIRSpec Long Period Comet CO$_2$ activity water ice

Cite

@article{arxiv.2503.14071,
  title  = {First JWST spectrum of distant activity in Long Period Comet C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos)},
  author = {Colin Snodgrass and Carrie E. Holt and Michael S. P. Kelley and Cyrielle Opitom and Aurélie Guilbert-Lepoutre and Matthew M. Knight and Rosita Kokotanekova and Emmanuel Jehin and Elena Mazzotta Epifani and Alessandra Migliorini and Cecilia Tubiana and Marco Micheli and Davide Farnocchia},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.14071},
  year   = {2025}
}

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6 pages, accepted for publication in MNRAS

First JWST spectrum of distant activity in Long Period Comet C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos)

Abstract

Keywords

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