Related papers: FUV Observations of the Inner Coma of 46P/Wirtanen
The release of volatiles from comets is usually from direct sublimation of ices on the nucleus, but for very or hyper-active comets other sources have to be considered to account for the total production rates. In this work, we present new…
Gas-phase molecules in cometary atmospheres (comae) originate primarily from (1) outgassing by the nucleus, (2) sublimation of icy grains in the near-nucleus coma, and (3) coma (photo-)chemical processes. However, the majority of cometary…
Aims. The Alice far-ultraviolet spectrograph onboard Rosetta is designed to observe emissions from various atomic and molecular species from within the coma of comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko and to determine their spatial distribution and…
Hyperactive comets have high water production rates, with inferred sublimation areas of order the surface area of the nucleus. Comets 46P/Wirtanen and 103P/Hartley 2 are two examples of this cometary class. Based on observations of comet…
Jupiter Family Comets (JFCs), having orbital period less than 20 years, provide us with an opportunity to observe their activity and analyse the homogeneity in their coma composition over multiple apparitions. Comet 46P/Wirtanen with its…
The proposed CUBES spectrograph for ESO's Very Large Telescope will be an exceptionally powerful instrument for the study of comets. The gas coma of a comet contains a large number of emission features in the near-UV range covered by CUBES…
The Alice far-ultraviolet imaging spectrograph onboard Rosetta observed emissions from atomic and molecular species from within the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during the entire escort phase of the mission from 2014 August to…
Cometary activity is a manifestation of sublimation-driven processes at the surface of nuclei. However, cometary outbursts may arise from other processes that are not necessarily driven by volatiles. In order to fully understand nuclear…
Comets are important "eyewitnesses" of Solar System formation and evolution. Important tests to determine the chemical composition and to study the physical processes in cometary nuclei and coma need data in the UV range of the…
Hyperactive comets are a small group of comets whose activity are higher than expected. They seem to emit more water than they should based on the size of their nucleus and comet 46P/Wirtanen is one of them. Investigating its activity and…
We obtained broadband and narrowband images of the hyperactive comet 46P/Wirtanen on 33~nights during its 2018/2019 apparition, when the comet made an historic close approach to the Earth. With our extensive coverage, we investigated the…
The chemical composition of comets is frequently assumed to be directly provided by the observations of the abundances of volatile molecules in the coma. The present work aims to determine the relationship between the chemical composition…
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…
The D/H ratio in cometary water has been shown to vary between 1 and 3 times the Earth's oceans value, in both Oort cloud comets and Jupiter-family comets originating from the Kuiper belt. We present new sensitive spectroscopic observations…
In situ research on cometary chemistry began when measurements from the Giotto mission at comet 1P/Halley revealed the presence of complex organics in the coma. New telescopes and space missions have provided detailed remote and in situ…
The Alice ultraviolet spectrograph on board the \textit{Rosetta} orbiter provided the first near-nucleus ultraviolet observations of a cometary coma from arrival at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014 August through 2016 September. The…
We present the results of a molecular survey of comet 46P/Wirtanen undertaken with the IRAM 30-m and NOEMA radio telescopes in December 2018. Observations at IRAM 30-m during the 12-18 Dec. period comprise a 2 mm spectral survey covering 25…
Topic of this work are comets, small and elusive objects that may hold great secrets about the origin of the Solar System and life on Earth, being among the most primitive objects. The method of investigation addressed in this work is the…
The study of comets affords a unique window into the birth, infancy, and subsequent history of the solar system. There is strong evidence that comets incorporated pristine interstellar material as well as processed nebular matter, providing…
The Deep Impact spacecraft fly-by of comet 103P/Hartley 2 occurred on 2010 November 4, one week after perihelion with a closest approach (CA) distance of about 700 km. We used narrowband images obtained by the Medium Resolution Imager (MRI)…