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A survey of debris trails from short-period comets
Authors:William T Reach  Michael S Kelley
Institution:a Spitzer Science Center/Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, MS 220-6, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
b Department of Astronomy, University of Minnesota, 116 Church St., Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
c Planetary Science Institute, 1700 E Ft. Lowell, Suite 106, Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
Abstract:We observed 34 comets using the 24 μm camera on the Spitzer Space Telescope. Each image contains the nucleus and covers at least 106 km of each comet's orbit. Debris trails due to mm-sized or larger particles were found along the orbits of 27 comets; 4 comets had small-particle dust tails and a viewing geometry that made debris trails impossible to distinguish; and only 3 had no debris trail despite favorable observing conditions. There are now 30 Jupiter-family comets with known debris trails, of which 22 are reported in this paper for the first time. The detection rate is >80%, indicating that debris trails are a generic feature of short-period comets. By comparison to orbital calculations for particles of a range of sizes ejected over 2 yr prior to observation, we find that particles comprising 4 debris trails are typically mm-sized while the remainder of the debris trails require particles larger than this. The lower-limit masses of the debris trails are typically 1011 g, and the median mass loss rate is 2 kg/s. The mass-loss rate in trail particles is comparable to that inferred from OH production rates and larger than that inferred from visible-light scattering in comae.
Keywords:Comets  Meteors  Infrared observations  Interplanetary dust
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