Lingering grains of truth around comet 17P/HOLMES

Stevenson, R.; Bauer, J. M.; Mainzer, A. K.; Masiero, J. R.; Kramer, E. A.

doi:10.1088/0004-637X/787/2/116

Title: Lingering grains of truth around comet 17P/HOLMES

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Abstract

Comet 17P/Holmes underwent a massive outburst in 2007 October, brightening by a factor of almost a million in under 48 hr. We used infrared images taken by the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer mission to characterize the comet as it appeared at a heliocentric distance of 5.1 AU almost 3 yr after the outburst. The comet appeared to be active with a coma and dust trail along the orbital plane. We constrained the diameter, albedo, and beaming parameter of the nucleus to 4.135 ± 0.610 km, 0.03 ± 0.01, and 1.03 ± 0.21, respectively. The properties of the nucleus are consistent with those of other Jupiter family comets. The best-fit temperature of the coma was 134 ± 11 K, slightly higher than the blackbody temperature at that heliocentric distance. Using Finson-Probstein modeling, we found that the morphology of the trail was consistent with ejection during the 2007 outburst and was made up of dust grains between 250 μm and a few cm in radius. The trail mass was ∼1.2-5.3 × 10{sup 10} kg.

Authors:

Stevenson, R.; Bauer, J. M.; Mainzer, A. K.; Masiero, J. R. ^[1]; Kramer, E. A. ^[2]

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, MS 183-427, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
Department of Physics, University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Blvd, Orlando, FL 32816 (United States)

Publication Date:: Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2014

OSTI Identifier:: 22356789

Resource Type:: Journal Article

Journal Name:: Astrophysical Journal

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 787; Journal Issue: 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Journal ID: ISSN 0004-637X

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 79 ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; ALBEDO; COMETS; DISTANCE; DUSTS; IMAGES; INFRARED SURVEYS; JUPITER PLANET; MASS; MORPHOLOGY; NITROGEN 11; SIMULATION

Citation Formats


                    Stevenson, R., Bauer, J. M., Mainzer, A. K., Masiero, J. R., Kramer, E. A., and Grav, T., E-mail: Rachel.A.Stevenson@jpl.nasa.gov. Lingering grains of truth around comet 17P/HOLMES.  United States: N. p., 2014. 
        Web.  doi:10.1088/0004-637X/787/2/116.

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                    Stevenson, R., Bauer, J. M., Mainzer, A. K., Masiero, J. R., Kramer, E. A., & Grav, T., E-mail: Rachel.A.Stevenson@jpl.nasa.gov. Lingering grains of truth around comet 17P/HOLMES.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/787/2/116

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                    Stevenson, R., Bauer, J. M., Mainzer, A. K., Masiero, J. R., Kramer, E. A., and Grav, T., E-mail: Rachel.A.Stevenson@jpl.nasa.gov. 2014.  
        "Lingering grains of truth around comet 17P/HOLMES".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/787/2/116.

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@article{osti_22356789,

  title        = {Lingering grains of truth around comet 17P/HOLMES},

  author       = {Stevenson, R. and Bauer, J. M. and Mainzer, A. K. and Masiero, J. R. and Kramer, E. A. and Grav, T., E-mail: Rachel.A.Stevenson@jpl.nasa.gov},

  abstractNote = {Comet 17P/Holmes underwent a massive outburst in 2007 October, brightening by a factor of almost a million in under 48 hr. We used infrared images taken by the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer mission to characterize the comet as it appeared at a heliocentric distance of 5.1 AU almost 3 yr after the outburst. The comet appeared to be active with a coma and dust trail along the orbital plane. We constrained the diameter, albedo, and beaming parameter of the nucleus to 4.135 ± 0.610 km, 0.03 ± 0.01, and 1.03 ± 0.21, respectively. The properties of the nucleus are consistent with those of other Jupiter family comets. The best-fit temperature of the coma was 134 ± 11 K, slightly higher than the blackbody temperature at that heliocentric distance. Using Finson-Probstein modeling, we found that the morphology of the trail was consistent with ejection during the 2007 outburst and was made up of dust grains between 250 μm and a few cm in radius. The trail mass was ∼1.2-5.3 × 10{sup 10} kg.},

  doi          = {10.1088/0004-637X/787/2/116},

  url          = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22356789},
  journal      = {Astrophysical Journal},

  issn         = {0004-637X},

  number       = 2,

  volume       = 787,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2014},

  month        = {Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2014}

}

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