Related papers: Relating Changes in Cometary Rotation to Activity:…
We present IRTF/SpeX and NEOWISE observations of the dynamically new comet C/2013 US$_{10}$ (Catalina), hereafter US10, from 5.8 au inbound, to near perihelion at 1.3 au, and back to 5.0 au outbound. We detect water ice in the coma of US10,…
Aims. We use four observational data sets, mainly from the Rosetta mission, to constrain the activity pattern of the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Methods. We develop a numerical model that computes the production rate and…
Comet 103P/Hartley 2 has diurnally controlled, CO2-driven activity on the tip of the small lobe of its bilobate nucleus. Such activity is unique among the comet nuclei visited by spacecraft, and suggests that CO2 ice is very near the…
We report the electron density in a plasma tail of Comet ISON (C/2012 S1) derived from interplanetary scintillation (IPS) observations during November 1--28, 2013. Comet ISON showed a well-developed plasma tail (longer than 2.98 x 10^{7}…
Exact diagonalizations with a realistic interaction show that configurations with four neutrons in a major shell and four protons in another -or the same- major shell, behave systematically as backbending rotors. The dominance of the…
One of the least understood properties of comets is the compositional structure of their nuclei, which can either be homogeneous or heterogeneous. The nucleus structure can be conveniently studied at millimeter wavelengths, using…
Earth-based radar observations of the rotational dynamics of Mercury (Margot et al. 2012) combined with the determination of its gravity field by MESSENGER (Smith et al. 2012) give clues on the internal structure of Mercury, in particular…
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.…
Context. The relation between solar surface rotation and sunspot activity still remains open. Sunspot activity has dramatically reduced in solar cycle 24 and several solar activity indices and flux measurements experienced unprecedentedly…
Comet C/2020 V2 (ZTF) is categorized as a dynamically new long-period comet, making its first approach to the inner Solar system. We have observed this comet for around 32 months (from January 2022 to July 2024) at heliocentric distances…
Comets are primitive remnants of the early Solar System whose composition offers fundamental clues to their formation and evolution. High-resolution, broad-wavelength spectroscopy is crucial for identifying volatile species and constraining…
We studied C/2025 D1 (Groeller), a long-period comet with an unprecedented perihelion distance of 14.1 au, using archival observations. The data reveals that it had been active at inbound heliocentric distances $r_{\rm H} \gtrsim 20$ au.…
Available helioseismic data now span almost the entire solar activity cycle 23 making it possible to study solar-cycle related changes of the solar rotation rate in detail. In this paper we study how the solar rotation rate, in particular,…
Most Kreutz family sungrazing comets are discovered only days before perihelion, severely limiting observational opportunities to study their physical nature and decay. Kreutz sungrazer C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) was discovered a month before…
As a comet, asteroid or planet approaches its parent star, the orbit changes shape due to the curvature of spacetime. For comets in particular, the deviation at the pericentre may noticeably change their ephemerides and affect the dynamics…
Centaurs are small Solar System objects on chaotic orbits in the giant planet region, forming an evolutionary continuum with the Kuiper belt objects and Jupiter-family comets. Some Centaurs are known to exhibit cometary activity, though…
Periodic comets of different dynamical groups with orbits at 2 - 5 AU still occasionally active. The observed dust activity of such objects can be connected with processes of water ice sublimation (MBCs) or crystallization of amorphous…
Extensive observations of comet 260P (McNaught) were carried out between August 2012 and January 2013. The images obtained were used to analyze the inner coma morphology of the comet at resolutions ranging from 250 to about 1000 km/pixel. A…
We report a new imaging spectroscopic observation of Oort-cloud comet C/2017 K2 (hereafter K2) on its way to perihelion at 2.53 au, around a heliocentric distance where H2O ice begins to play a key role in comet activation. Normalized…
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…