The Influence of Reactive Torques on Comet Nucleus Rotation

Reactive torques, due to anisotropic sublimation on a comet nucleus surface, produce slow variations of its rotation. In this paper the secular effects of this sublimation are studied. The general rotational equations of motion are averaged over unperturbed fast rotation around the mass center (Euler-Poinsot motion) and over the orbital comet motion. We discuss the parameters that define typical properties of the rotational evolution and discover different classifications of the rotational evolution. As an example we discuss some possible scenarios of rotational evolution for the nuclei of the comets Halley and Borrelly.     

The Nucleus of Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1): Size and Activity

A review of our current understanding of Comet Hale-Bopp’s nuclear size is presented. Currently the best constraints on the effective radiusare derived from late-1996 mid-IR data and near-perihelion radio data.Unfortunately the two regimes give differing answers for the radius. A possible reconciliation of the two datasets is presented that would place the radius at around 30 km. This is a large cometary radius compared to the others that are known, and this motivates a discussion of what makes a large comet different. From several possible large-comet properties, Hale-Bopp’s activity is analyzed, focusing on the production rates, coma jet features, dust optical depth, and relationship with the interplanetary dust environment. The optical depth is particularly important since an optically-thick inner coma could complicate attempted measurements of the “nucleus”.     

The Nucleus of Comet 22P/Kopff and Its Inner Coma

We report the detection of the nucleus of Comet 22P/Kopff with the Planetary Camera of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and with the Infrared Camera of the Infrared Space Observatory (ISOCAM). The HST observations were performed on 18 July 1996, 16 days after its perihelion passage of 2 July 1996, when it was at R_h=1.59 AU from the Sun and Δ=0.57 AU from the Earth. A sequence of images taken with four broad-band filters was repeated eight times over a 12-h time interval. The ISOCAM observations were performed on 15 October 1996, 106 days after the perihelion passage, when the comet was at R_h=1.89 AU from the Sun and Δ=1.32 AU from the Earth. Seven images were obtained with a broad-band filter centered at 11.5 μm. In both instances, the spatial resolution was appropriate to separate the signal of the nucleus from that of the coma. We determine the Johnson-Kron-Cousins BVRI magnitudes of the nucleus. The visible lightcurves constrain neither the rotation period nor the ratio of semiaxes. We favor the solution of a rather spherical nucleus, although the situation of a pole-on view of an irregular body cannot be excluded. The systematic decreasing trend of the lightcurves could suggest a period of several days. Combining the visible and infrared observations, we find that an ice-dust mixed model is ruled out, while the standard thermal model leads to a nuclear radius of R_n=1.67±0.18 km of albedo p_v=0.042±0.006. The red color of the nucleus is characterized by a nearly constant gradient of S′=14±5% per kÅ from 400 to 800 nm. We estimate a fractional active area of 0.35 which places 22P/Kopff in the class of highly active short-period comets. At R_h=1.59 AU, the dust coma is characterized by a red color with a reflectivity gradient S′=17±3% per kÅ, compatible with that of the nucleus, and Afρ=545 cm, yielding a dust production rate of Q_d=130 kg sec⁻¹.     

The Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) Mission for the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS)

The NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) is an advanced study of Earth's long-term global changes of solid Earth, its atmosphere, and oceans and includes a coordinated collection of satellites, data systems, and modeling. The EOS program was conceived in the 1980s as part of NASA's Earth System Enterprise (ESE). The Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) is one of about 20 missions planned for the EOS program, and the SORCE measurement objectives include the total solar irradiance (TSI) and solar spectral irradiance (SSI) that are two of the 24 key measurement parameters defined for the EOS program. The SORCE satellite was launched in January 2003, and its observations are improving the understanding and generating new inquiry regarding how and why solar variability occurs and how it affects Earth's energy balance, atmosphere, and long-term climate changes.     

海尔-波普彗星的一个可能的巨大等离子体喷流

１９９６年９月１１日，使用上海天文台１．５６ｍ望远镜和Ｓｅｒｉｅｓ２００ＣＣＤ照相机，在Ｂ波段发现海尔波普彗星有一个巨大的喷流，初步认定为等离子喷流．     

Detection of a Satellite Orbiting The Nucleus of Comet Hale–Bopp (C/1995 O1)

This paper reports on the detection of a satellite around the principal nucleus of comet Hale-Bopp. As shown elsewhere, a successful morphological model for the comet's dust coma necessitates the postulation of overlapping jet activity from a comet pair. The satellite has been detected digitally on images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in the planetary mode on five days in May–October 1996. An average satellite-to-primary signal ratio is 0.21 ± 0.03, which implies that the satellite is ∼30 km in diameter, assuming the main nucleus is ∼70 km across. To avoid collision, the separation distance must exceed 50–60 km at all times. The satellite's projected distances on the images vary from 160 to 210 km, or 0.06 to 0.10 arcsec. The satellite was not detected in October 1995, presumably because of its subpixel separation from the primary. The radius of the gravitational sphere of action of the principal nucleus 70 km in diameter is 370–540 km at perihelion, increasing linearly with the Sun's distance: the satellite appears to be in a fairly stable orbit. Its orbital period at ∼180 km is expected to be ∼2–3 days, much shorter than the intervals between the HST observations. If the main nucleus should be no more than 42 km across, Weaver et al.'s upper limit, the satellite's orbit could become unstable, with the object drifting away from the main nucleus after perihelion. Potentially relevant ground-based detections of close companions are reported. Efforts to determine the satellite's orbit and the total mass of the system will get under way in the near future. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Size and Physical Properties of the Comet Hale–Bopp (C/1995 O1) Nucleus

This article uses fractal and correlation analysis of solar radio emission for determining the solar coronal rotation. It is clear from this analysis that radio emissions are modulated by the solar rotation. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Split Comet C/2001 A2 (LINEAR)

Comet C/2001 A2 experienced several splitting events duringits 2001 perihelion passage. The first break-upevent was observed in March 2001 (IAUC 7616).In this paper we report the first results of ourextensive imaging and spectroscopic monitoring campaignwith ESO telescopes over several weeks before andafter the perihelion passage on May 25 2001.     

A new orbit of Comet 1961 V (Wilson-Hubbard)

A definitive orbit of Comet 1961 V (Wilson-Hubbard), based on 84 observations, is given.     

Discovery Of Mg-Rich Pyroxenes In Comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp): Pristine Grains Revealed At Perihelion

The NASA Ames HIFOGS spectrometer observed comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) at epochs including 96 Oct 7–14 UT (2.8 AU), 97 Feb 14–15 UT (1.2 AU), 97 Apr 11 UT (0.93 AU), and 97 Jun 22, 25 UT (1.7 AU). The HIFOGS 7.5–13.5 μm spectrophotometry (R = 360 - 180) of the silicate feature at 2.8 AU is identical in shape to the ISO SWS spectra of comet Hale-Bopp (Crovisier et al., 1997); the strong 11.2 μm peak in the structured silicate feature is identified as olivine. Upon close passage to the sun, the HIFOGS spectra at 1.2 AU and 0.93 AU reveals strong peaks at 9.3 μm and 10.0 μm. The post-perihelion 10 μm silicate feature at 1.7 AU is weaker but has nearly the same shape as the pre-perihelion spectra at 1.2 AU, reverting to its pre-perihelion shape: there is no change in the dust chemistry by close passage to the sun. The appearance of the strong peaks at 9.3 μm and 10.0 μm at r_h ≲ 1.7 AU is attributed to the rise in the contribution of pryoxenes (clino-pyroxene and orthopyroxene crystals) to the shape of the feature, and leads to the hypothesis that the pyroxenes are significantly cooler than the olivines. The pyroxenes are radiating on the Wien side of the blackbody at 2.8 AU and transition to the Rayleigh-Jeans tail of the blackbody upon closer approach to the Sun. Composite fits to the observed 10 μm silicate features using IDPs and laboratory minerals shows that a good empirical fit to the spectra is obtained when the pryoxenes are about 150 K cooler than the olivines. The pyroxenes, because they are cooler and contribute signficantly at perihelion, are more abundant than the olivines. The perihelion temperature of the pyroxenes implies that the pyroxenes are more Mg-rich than the other minerals including the olivines, amorphous olivines, and amorphous pyroxenes. The PUMA-1 flyby measurements of comet P/Halley also indicated an overabundance of Mg-rich pryoxenes compared to olivines. Comet Hale-Bopp's pyroxenes are similar to pyroxere IDPs from the ’Spray‘ class, known for their D-richness and their unaltered morphologies: Hale-Bopp's Mg-rich pyroxenes may be pristine relic ISM grains. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Solar Mass-Ejection Imager (SMEI) Mission

We have launched into near-Earth orbit a solar mass-ejection imager (SMEI) that is capable of measuring sunlight Thomson-scattered from heliospheric electrons from elongations to as close as 18 to greater than 90 from the Sun. SMEI is designed to observe time-varying heliospheric brightness of objects such as coronal mass ejections, co-rotating structures and shock waves. The instrument evolved from the heliospheric imaging capability demonstrated by the zodiacal light photometers of the Helios spacecraft. A near-Earth imager can provide up to three days warning of the arrival of a mass ejection from the Sun. In combination with other imaging instruments in deep space, or alone by making some simple assumptions about the outward flow of the solar wind, SMEI can provide a three-dimensional reconstruction of the surrounding heliospheric density structures.     

The Hinode (Solar-B) Mission: An Overview

The Hinode satellite (formerly Solar-B) of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS/JAXA) was successfully launched in September 2006. As the successor to the Yohkoh mission, it aims to understand how magnetic energy gets transferred from the photosphere to the upper atmosphere and results in explosive energy releases. Hinode is an observatory style mission, with all the instruments being designed and built to work together to address the science aims. There are three instruments onboard: the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT), the EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS), and the X-Ray Telescope (XRT). This paper provides an overview of the mission, detailing the satellite, the scientific payload, and operations. It will conclude with discussions on how the international science community can participate in the analysis of the mission data. T. Kosugi deceased 26 November 2006.     

A Determination of The Nuclear Size of Comet Hale–Bopp (C/1995 O1)

The signal of the nucleus was digitally extracted from six images of the innermost coma of this comet, obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2 in the planetary mode between October 23, 1995 and October 17, 1996. Two different anisotropic, power-type laws were used to filter out the contribution from the dust coma: one peaking at the center of the elliptical surface brightness distribution (law A), the other peaking at its focus (law B). The nuclear R magnitudes in the Cousins system, reduced to a zero phase angle and to 1 AU from Earth and the Sun with a phase coefficient of 0.035 mag/deg and an inverse square distance power law, are found to average 9.46 ± 0.07 and 9.48 ± 0.18 when law A and law B are applied, respectively. These results become 9.49 ± 0.07 and 9.51 ± 0.17, when the nucleus signal on the October 1995 image is assumed to consist of a sum of the contributions from two unresolved nuclear components. In either scenario, no systematic variations are apparent in the nuclear brightness with time, which suggests the absence of any significant contamination of the extracted nuclear signal by the coma. Assuming a geometric albedo of 4 percent, the corresponding effective nuclear diameter amounts to 71 ± 4 km (formal error). This result substantially exceeds the size estimates published by Weaver et al., which are based only on the October 1995 observation and which were obtained with the help of a different reduction method. Runs in which a power-type law fitting the contribution from the coma was assumed to hold all the way to a small fraction of a pixel from the nucleus led to distinctly inferior solutions and yielded spurious values ll70 km for the nuclear diameter. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Dust Coma of Comet C/1999 S4 (Linear)

Comet C/1999 S4 (LINEAR) showed a very special behaviour between 28 June and1 July 2000. Optical observations of the dust coma in two distinct continuum bandsrevealed that it changed morphologically as well as in colour. The two-dimensionalcoma morphology indicates a splitting of the nucleus which probably occurred shortlybefore the observations of 28 June 2000. The distribution of the dust particles in sunand tail direction reflected by the slopes of the radial profiles indicate the presence ofa considerable amount of disintegrating dust particles in the sunward hemisphere andan overabundance of dust, reflecting at 440 nm, within the first 18,000 km of the dusttail. The spatial profiles of the (BC–RC) colour index in sun direction are distinctly different on 28 June and 1 July, indicating the production of a large amount of particles observable in blue continuum after 28 June.     

The X-Ray Telescope (XRT) for the Hinode Mission

The X-ray Telescope (XRT) of the Hinode mission provides an unprecedented combination of spatial and temporal resolution in solar coronal studies. The high sensitivity and broad dynamic range of XRT, coupled with the spacecraft’s onboard memory capacity and the planned downlink capability will permit a broad range of coronal studies over an extended period of time, for targets ranging from quiet Sun to X-flares. This paper discusses in detail the design, calibration, and measured performance of the XRT instrument up to the focal plane. The CCD camera and data handling are discussed separately in a companion paper.     

A search for microwave emission from CH in Comet Kohoutek (1973f)

A search was conducted for the three 9-cm transitions of the ground state Λ-doublet of CH in comet Kohoutek, using the CSIRO 64-m radio telescope and the Onsala Space Observatory's 25.6-m telescope. No lines were detected during the observing periods, and upper limits are given for the corresponding antenna temperatures.     

Observations of Comet C/2001 A2 (Linear) with the Multipupil Fiber Spectrograph

We present preliminary results of observations of the spectrum of comet C/2001 A2(LINEAR) obtained with the Multipupil Fiber Spectrograph, installed in the PrimeFocus of the 6-m Telescope of the SAO of the RAS (Northern Caucasus, NizhnyArkhyz), on August 11/12, 12/13 and 14/15, 2001. High resolution spectra of thecomet were obtained in the range from 3800–5200 AA. The emission lines in the spectrum of comet C/2001 A2 (LINEAR) on Aug. 12, 2001 were identified. Thefluorescent continuum in the spectrum of comet C/2001 A2 (LINEAR) on Aug. 12,2001 is detected.     

A multi-wavelength study of parent volatile abundances in Comet C/2006 M4 (SWAN)

Volatile organic emissions were detected post-perihelion in the long-period Comet C/2006 M4 (SWAN) in October and November 2006. Our study combines target-of-opportunity infrared observations using the Cryogenic Echelle Spectrometer (CSHELL) at the NASA-IRTF 3-m telescope, and millimeter wavelength observations using the Arizona Radio Observatory (ARO) 12-m telescope. Five parent volatiles were measured with CSHELL (H₂O, CO, CH₃OH, CH₄, and C₂H₆), and two additional species (HCN and CS) were measured with the ARO 12-m. These revealed highly depleted CO and somewhat enriched CH₃OH compared with abundances observed in the dominant group of long-period (Oort cloud) comets in our sample and similar to those observed recently in Comet 8P/Tuttle. This may indicate highly efficient H-atom addition to CO at very low temperature (∼10-20 K) on the surfaces of interstellar (pre-cometary) grains. Comet C/2006 M4 had nearly “normal” C₂H₆ and CH₄, suggesting a processing history similar to that experienced by the dominant group. When compared with estimated water production at the time of the millimeter observations, HCN was slightly depleted compared with the normal abundance in comets based on IR observations but was consistent with the majority of values from the millimeter. The ratio CS/HCN in C/2006 M4 was within the range measured in ten comets at millimeter wavelengths. The higher apparent H-atom conversion efficiency compared with most comets may indicate that the icy grains incorporated into C/2006 M4 were exposed to higher H-atom densities, or alternatively to similar densities but for a longer period of time.