CATASTROPHIC DISRUPTION OF COMET ISON

Journal Article · Thu Nov 10 00:00:00 EST 2016 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/831/2/207· OSTI ID:22667207

Keane, Jacqueline V.; Kleyna, Jan T.; Riesen, Timm-Emmanuel; Meech, Karen J. ^[1]; Milam, Stefanie N.; Charnley, Steven B. ^[2]; Coulson, Iain M. ^[3]; Sekanina, Zdenek ^[4]; Kracht, Rainer ^[5]

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1. Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States)
2. Astrochemistry Laboratory, NASA GSFC, MS 690, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
3. Joint Astronomy Center, 660 North Aohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720 (United States)
4. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
5. Ostlandring 53, D-25335 Elmshorn, Schleswig-Holstein (Germany)

We report submillimeter 450 and 850 μ m dust continuum observations for comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) obtained at heliocentric distances 0.31–0.08 au prior to perihelion on 2013 November 28 ( r {sub h} = 0.0125 au). These observations reveal a rapidly varying dust environment in which the dust emission was initially point-like. As ISON approached perihelion, the continuum emission became an elongated dust column spread out over as much as 60″ (>10{sup 5} km) in the anti-solar direction. Deconvolution of the November 28.04 850 μ m image reveals numerous distinct clumps consistent with the catastrophic disruption of comet ISON, producing ∼5.2 × 10{sup 10} kg of submillimeter-sized dust. Orbital computations suggest that the SCUBA-2 emission peak coincides with the comet's residual nucleus.

• OSTI ID: 22667207
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 831, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
COMETS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COSMIC DUST
DATA ANALYSIS
DISTANCE
EMISSION