English
Related papers

Related papers: Rotation of Comet Hartley 2 from Structures in the…

200 papers

The Jupiter-family comet 103P/Hartley 2 (103P) was the target of the NASA EPOXI mission. In support of this mission, we conducted observations from radio to submillimeter wavelengths of comet 103P in the three weeks preceding the spacecraft…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-22 A. Gicquel , S. N. Milam , G. L. Villanueva , A. J. Remijan , I. M. Coulson , Y. -L. Chuang , S. B. Charnley , M. A. Cordiner , Y. -J. Kuan

We present results from CCD observations of comet 2P/Encke acquired at Steward Observatory's 2.3m Bok Telescope on Kitt Peak obtained in Oct. 2002, when the comet was near aphelion. Rotational lightcurves in B, V and R-filters were acquired…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-11 S. C. Lowry , P. R. Weissman

We report results based on mid-infrared photometry of comet 103P/Hartley 2 taken during May 4-13, 2010 (when the comet was at a heliocentric distance of 2.3 AU, and an observer distance of 2.0 AU) by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer…

We present imaging and spectroscopic data on comet 19P/Borrelly that were obtained around the time of the Deep Space 1 encounter and in subsequent months. In the four months after perihelion, the comet showed a strong primary (sunward) jet…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-07 Tony L. Farnham , Anita L. Cochran

The results of the photometric observations of comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 are analyzed. The comet demonstrates substantial activity at heliocentric distances larger than 5 AU, outside the water ice sublimation zone. The CCD images of…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2020-12-17 A. V. Ivanova , V. L. Afanasiev , P. P. Korsun , A. R. Baranskii , M. V. Andreev , V. A. Ponomarenko

We report measurements of eight primary volatiles (H2O, HCN, CH4, C2H6, CH3OH, C2H2, H2CO, and NH3) and two product species (OH and NH2) in comet 103P/Hartley-2 using high dispersion infrared spectroscopy. We quantified the long- and…

On November 4th, 2010, the Deep Impact eXtended Investigation (DIXI) successfully encountered comet 103P/Hartley 2, when it was at a heliocentric distance of 1.06 AU. Spatially resolved near-IR spectra of comet Hartley 2 were acquired in…

We processed images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to investigate any morphological features in the inner coma suggestive of a peculiar activity on the nucleus of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov. The coma shows an evident…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2020-04-29 F. Manzini , V. Oldani , P. Ochner , L. R. Bedin , .

We reported the monitoring results on spectrophotometry, photometry and imaging of comet 103P/Hartley 2 obtained at Lulin (1m), Calar Alto (2.2m) and Beijing Astronomical (2.16m) Observatory from April to December 2010. We found that a dust…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-16 Zhong-Yi Lin , Luisa M. Lara , Wing-Huen Ip

This study presents findings from narrowband imaging of comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) using the 3.6-metre New Technology Telescope (NTT) at La Silla, Chile. Observations commenced on January 27, 2007, 15 days after perihelion, and continued…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2026-03-03 Vincent Okoth , Cyrielle Opitom , Colin Snodgrass , Brian Murphy , James E. Robinson

We summarize the collective knowledge of physical and surface properties of comet nuclei, focusing on those that are obtained from remote observations. We now have measurements or constraints on effective radius for over 200 comets,…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2023-04-20 Matthew M. Knight , Rosita Kokotanekova , Nalin H. Samarasinha

We report on our extensive photometry and imaging of Comet 46P/Wirtanen during its 2018/19 apparition and use these data to constrain modeling of Wirtanen's activity. Narrowband photometry was obtained on nine epochs from 2018 October…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2021-03-26 Matthew M. Knight , David G. Schleicher , Tony L. Farnham

We present new lightcurve measurements of Comet 10P/Tempel 2 carried out with Lowell Observatory's Discovery Channel Telescope in early 2013 when the comet was at aphelion. These data represent some of the first science obtained with this…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-17 David G. Schleicher , Matthew M. Knight , Stephen E. Levine

We introduce a parameter, X, to predict the changes in the rotational period of a comet in terms of the rotational period itself, the nuclear radius, and the orbital characteristics. We show that X should be a constant if the bulk densities…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-17 Nalin Samarasinha , Beatrice Mueller

We present photometry on 23 Jupiter Family Comets (JFCs) observed at large heliocentric distance, primarily using the 2.5m Isaac Newton Telescope (INT). Snap-shot images were taken of 17 comets, of which 5 were not detected, 3 were active…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-13 Colin Snodgrass , Stephen C. Lowry , Alan Fitzsimmons

Cometary outgassing can produce torques that change the spin state of the nucleus, influencing the evolution and lifetimes of comets (1,2). If these torques spin up the rotation to the point that centripetal forces exceed the material…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2018-01-12 Dennis Bodewits , Tony L. Farnham , Michael S. P. Kelley , Matthew M. Knight

We imaged comet 10P/Tempel 2 on 32 nights from 1999 April through 2000 March. R-band lightcurves were obtained on 11 of these nights from 1999 April through 1999 June, prior to both the onset of significant coma activity and perihelion.…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-20 Matthew M. Knight , Tony L. Farnham , David G. Schleicher , Edward W. Schwieterman

We analyze jet features found in the coma of Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner (21P/GZ) during its 2018 perihelion passage using narrowband CN photometric imaging in order to determine the comet's rotational period, and constrain the CN gas…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2023-01-19 Charles Goldberg , Cassandra Lejoly , Nalin Samarasinha

The dynamics of a rigid cometary nucleus is described by the evolutions of its center-of-mass and of its rotation state. Solar irradiation that reaches the surface of a cometary nucleus causes the sublimation of volatiles that form the coma…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-07-09 Matthias Laeuter , Tobias Kramer

We present results from our 47-night imaging campaign of Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak conducted from Lowell Observatory between 2017 February 16 and July 2. Coma morphology revealed gas jets, whose appearance and motion as a function…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2019-02-20 David G. Schleicher , Matthew M. Knight , Nora L. Eisner , Audrey Thirouin