Rotation of the Nucleus, Gas Kinematics and Emission Pattern of Comet 8P/Tuttle: Preliminary Results from Optical Imaging of the CN Coma |
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Authors: | W. Waniak G. Borisov M. Drahus T. Bonev K. Czart M. Küppers |
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Affiliation: | 1. Astronomical Observatory of the Jagiellonian University, ul. Orla 171, 30-244, Kraków, Poland 2. Institute of Astronomy of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 72 Tsarigradsko Chaussee Blvd., 1784, Sofia, Bulgaria 3. Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Max-Planck-Str. 2, 37191, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany 4. Toruń Centre for Astronomy of the Nicolaus Copernicus University, ul. Gagarina 11, 87-100, Toruń, Poland 5. European Space Astronomy Centre, Villanueva de la, Ca?ada, P.O. Box 78, 28691, Madrid, Spain
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Abstract: | We present preliminary results of the narrow-band CN observations of comet 8P/Tuttle from early January 2008, realized as part of a project consisting of near-simultaneous spectroscopic monitoring of HCN at millimeter-wavelengths and optical imaging of the coma. The mean-image subtraction method revealed low-contrast CN envelopes. Using the image cross-correlation technique we measured the projected velocity of these shells. For the sunward part we found it to be equal to 0.96 ± 0.03 km s?1 on January 4 and 1.10 ± 0.01 km s?1 on January 9, whereas the anti-sunward part reached 0.73 ± 0.05 and 0.80 ± 0.02 km s?1, respectively. The periodicity of gas emission was investigated using a repeatability of the shells, their kinematics, and an aperture photometry of the near nucleus region. We found a period of 5.70 ± 0.07 h (along with multiples), consistent with previous findings by other authors. A toy Monte Carlo model was implemented to reproduce the time-series of the CN images. We show that emission of HCN into a relatively wide cone by a single active region on a rotating nucleus is the most probable scenario. |
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