EVIDENCE FOR FRESH FROST LAYER ON THE BARE NUCLEUS OF COMET HALE-BOPP AT 32 AU DISTANCE
- MTA CSFK, Konkoly Observatory, Konkoly Thege Miklos ut 15-17, H-1121 Budapest (Hungary)
- Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden (Netherlands)
Here, we report that the activity of comet Hale-Bopp ceased between late 2007 and 2009 March, at about 28 AU distance from the Sun. At that time, the comet resided at a distance from the Sun that exceeded the freeze-out distance of regular comets by an order of magnitude. A Herschel Space Observatory PACS scan was taken in mid-2010, in the already inactive state of the nucleus. The albedo has been found to be surprisingly large (8.1% {+-} 0.9%), which exceeds the value known for any other comets. With re-reduction of archive Hubble Space Telescope images from 1995 and 1996, we confirm that the pre-perihelion albedo resembled that of an ordinary comet and was smaller by a factor of two than the post-activity albedo. Our further observations with the Very Large Telescope also confirmed that the albedo increased significantly by the end of the activity. We explain these observations by proposing gravitational redeposition of icy grains toward the end of the activity. This is plausible for such a massive body in a cold environment, where gas velocity is lowered to the range of the escape velocity. These observations also show that giant comets are not just the upscaled versions of the comets we know but can be affected by processes that are yet to be fully identified.
- OSTI ID:
- 22140097
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 761, 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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