Related papers: Optical spectroscopy of comets
The practical distinctions between asteroids and comets, viewed as products of accretion on either side of the snow line, are less clear-cut than previously understood. In this chapter, we discuss the numerous solar system populations which…
The light echo systems of historical supernovae in the Milky Way and local group galaxies provide an unprecedented opportunity to reveal the effects of asymmetry on observables, particularly optical spectra. Scattering dust at different…
Spectroscopy is one of the most important tools that an astronomer has for studying the universe. This chapter begins by discussing the basics, including the different types of optical spectrographs, with extension to the ultraviolet and…
Detailed mapping of the distributions and kinematics of gases in cometary comae at radio wavelengths can provide fundamental advances in our understanding of cometary activity and outgassing mechanisms. Furthermore, the measurement of…
We discuss the morphology and spectrophotometry of 5 comets visible in August, 2001. We decompose comae into coma profiles and azimuthally renormalized images, in which general and local features are quantitatively comparable. Comet…
Optical properties are required for the correct understanding and modelling of protoplanetary and debris discs. By assuming that comets are the most pristine bodies in the solar system, our goal is to derive optical constants of real…
The gas-driven dust activity of comets is still an unresolved question in cometary science. In the past, it was believed that comets are dirty snowballs and that the dust is ejected when the ice retreats. However, thanks to the various…
This paper examines the variations, because of atmospheric extinction, of broad-band visible spectra, obtained from long-slit spectroscopy, in the vicinity of some stars, nebulae, and one faint galaxy.
SAOZ (Systeme d'Analyse par Observation Zenitale) is a balloon born experiment which determines the column density of several molecular species from the visible spectrum of sunlight. We will use sequence of spectra collected during a sunset…
The abundances of gas and dust (solids and complex molecules) in the interstellar medium (ISM) as well as their composition and structures impact practically all of astrophysics. Fundamental processes from star formation to stellar winds to…
Since in situ studies and interplanetary dust collections only provide a spatially limited amount of information about the interplanetary dust properties, it is of major importance to complete these studies with properties inferred from…
With the increasing number of directly imaged giant exoplanets the current atmosphere models are often not capable of fully explaining the spectra and luminosity of the sources. A particularly challenging component of the atmosphere models…
Disintegrating planets are ultra-short-period exoplanets that appear to have a comet-like dust tail. They are commonly interpreted as low-mass planets whose solid surface is evaporating and whose tail is made of recondensing minerals.…
Active comets have been detected in several exoplanetary systems, although so far only indirectly, when the dust or gas in the extended coma has transited in front of the stellar disk. The large optical surface and relatively high…
The measured nitrogen-to-carbon ratio in comets is lower than for the Sun, a discrepancy which could be alleviated if there is an unknown reservoir of nitrogen in comets. The nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko exhibits an…
The zodiacal light is a night-glow mostly visible along the plane of the ecliptic. It represents the background radiation associated with solar light scattered by the tenuous flattened interplanetary cloud of dust particles surrounding the…
The occurrence of complex organic molecules (COMs) in the gas phase at low temperature in the dense phases of the ISM suggests that a non-thermal desorption mechanism is at work because otherwise, COMs should condense within a short…
Stars and planets can be seen as the second fundamental building blocks of baryons in the universe (only second to the dust and gas in molecular clouds). Their formation involves dust grain growth of many orders of magnitude and a myriad of…
Comets are classified from their orbital characteristics into two separate classes: nearly-isotropic, mainly long-period comets and ecliptic, short-period comets. Members from the former class are coming from the Oort cloud. Those of the…
The solar system's Zodiacal Cloud is visible to the unaided eye, yet the origin of its constituent dust particles is not well understood, with a wide range of proposed divisions between sources in the asteroid belt and Jupiter Family…