The Perihelion Emission of Comet C/2010 L5 ( WISE )
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
- University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Boulevard, Orlando, FL 32816 (United States)
- Planetary Science Institute, 1700 East Fort Lowell, Suite 106, Tucson, AZ 85719-2395 (United States)
- Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
The only Halley-type comet discovered by the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer ( WISE ), C/2010 L5 ( WISE ), was imaged three times by WISE , and it showed a significant dust tail during the second and third visits (2010 June and July, respectively). We present here an analysis of the data collected by WISE , putting estimates on the comet’s size, dust production rate, gas production (CO+CO{sub 2}) rate, and active fraction. We also present a detailed description of a novel tail-fitting technique that allows the commonly used syndyne–synchrone models to be used analytically, thereby giving more robust results. We find that C/2010 L5's dust tail was likely formed by strong emission, likely in the form of an outburst, occurring when the comet was within a few days of perihelion. Analyses of the June and July data independently agree on this result. The two separate epochs of dust tail analysis independently suggest a strong emission event close to perihelion. The average size of the dust particles in the dust tail increased between the epochs, suggesting that the dust was primarily released in a short period of time, and the smaller dust particles were quickly swept away by solar radiation pressure, leaving the larger particles behind. The difference in CO{sub 2} and dust production rates measured in 2010 June and July is not consistent with “normal” steady-state gas production from a comet at these heliocentric distances, suggesting that much of the detected CO{sub 2} and dust was produced in an episodic event. Together, these conclusions suggest that C/2010 L5 experienced a significant outburst event when the comet was close to perihelion.
- OSTI ID:
- 22661240
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 838, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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