Quick search Find article
Quick search
Find article

Hubble Space Telescope STIS Observations of Comet 19P/Borrelly during the Deep Space 1 Encounter

FREE ISSUE

H. A. Weaver1, S. A. Stern2 and J. Wm. Parker2

Show affiliations


In support of the NASA Deep Space 1 (DS1) mission to comet 19P/Borrelly, we obtained Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images and ultraviolet (UV) spectra of the comet near the time of the DS1 flyby in 2001 September. The HST data provide context information on 19P/Borrelly's circumnuclear dust environment, the rotational period and rotational phase of its nucleus, the H2O and CS2 production rates, the dust production rate, the dust reflectivity in the visible and mid-UV, and the time variability of these quantities around the time of the DS1 encounter. We derive average values of Q = (3.0 ± 0.6) × 1028 molecules s-1, [CS2/H2O] = (1.0 ± 0.3) × 10-3, and Qdust ≈ 240 kg s-1. The corresponding dust-to-gas mass ratio is 0.24, but this is only a rough estimate because the dust production rate is uncertain by about an order of magnitude. The dust continuum was strongly reddened between 2400 and 3200 Å, and the Afρ value of 745 ± 15 cm near 6500 Å was ~2.5 times larger than the value near 2900 Å. The observed coma morphology consisted of a strong jet centered ~6° from the projected solar vector, one broad fan centered ~23° from the sunward direction, and another broad fan centered ~18° from the antisunward direction. The light curve of the optical continuum, as measured in target acquisition images, has an amplitude of ~40% in a square aperture that subtends 160 km at the comet; the rotational period could not be independently derived from the HST images but is consistent with the value of ~26 hr derived from HST observations in 1994 and ground-based images in 2000. The new HST data reveal a prominent offset in the emission peak of neutral gas molecules, and therefore in the peak column densities of gas in the coma, relative to the position of the cometary nucleus, which may be related to the offset in ion densities observed in situ by the DS1 Plasma Experiment for Planetary Exploration (PEPE) plasma spectrometer.


Keywords

comets: general; comets: individual (19P/Borrelly); solar system: general


Dates

Issue 1 (2003 July)

Received 2002 July 25, accepted for publication 2003 April 4



  1. Hubble Space Telescope STIS Observations of Comet 19P/Borrelly during the Deep Space 1 Encounter

    H. A. Weaver et al. 2003 The Astronomical Journal 126 444

  2. Status of NINJA: the Numerical INJection Analysis project

    Laura Cadonati et al 2009 Class. Quantum Grav. 26 114008

  3. FastBit: an efficient indexing technology for accelerating data-intensive science

    Kesheng Wu 2005 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 16 556

  4. The regrets of procrastination in climate policy

    Klaus Keller et al 2007 Environ. Res. Lett. 2 024004

  5. Yang–Mills theory for bundle gerbes

    Varghese Mathai and David Roberts 2006 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 39 6039

  6. Reduction of the secondary neutron dose in passively scattered proton radiotherapy, using an optimized pre-collimator/collimator

    David J Brenner et al 2009 Phys. Med. Biol. 54 6065

  7. Catalyst-free nanowires with axial InxGa1−xAs/GaAs heterostructures

    Martin Heiß et al 2009 Nanotechnology 20 075603

  8. Space missions to detect the cosmic gravitational-wave background

    Neil J Cornish and Shane L Larson 2001 Class. Quantum Grav. 18 3473

  9. The frustration-based approach of supercooled liquids and the glass transition: a review and critical assessment

    G Tarjus et al 2005 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 17 R1143

  10. Nosehouse: heat-conserving ventilators based on nasal counterflow exchangers

    Steven Vogel 2009 Bioinspir. Biomim. 4 046004

Users also read

What's this?
This innovative new feature generates a list of articles 'also read' by other users based on them reading the original article. Article abstracts citations and references are all considered and weighted accordingly. We hope that this will help you find relevant papers for your research.

  1. Minor Planet 2002 EX12 (=169P/NEAT) and the Alpha Capricornid Shower

View by subject




Export








Please login to access our web services, or create an account if you don't yet have one.

You must have cookies enabled in your web browser to be able to login.

Username
Password

Forgotten your password? Get a new one here.