AN INFRARED SEARCH FOR HDO IN COMET D/2012 S1 (ISON) AND IMPLICATIONS FOR iSHELL

Journal Article · Sun Jan 10 00:00:00 EST 2016 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/816/2/101· OSTI ID:22521695

Gibb, Erika L. ^[1]; Bonev, Boncho P.; Villanueva, Geronimo L.; Paganini, Lucas ^[2]; DiSanti, Michael A.

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Missouri—St Louis, 1 University Blvd, St Louis, MO 63121 (United States)
2. Department of Physics, Catholic University of America, 620 Michigan Avenue NE, Washington, DC 20064 (United States)

We performed a sensitive search for HDO in comet D/2012 S1 (ISON) on 2013 November 16, 17, and 22 using CSHELL and the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility. We constrained the HDO/H{sub 2}O ratio to <2.0 VSMOW (the terrestrial ocean value) at the 3σ uncertainty level from two independent measurements corresponding to different H{sub 2}O outgassing rates. This represents the best constrained HDO/H{sub 2}O ratio for a comet using a small (3 m) telescope and illustrates that when CSHELL is replaced with iSHELL, 3 m class telescopes are still strong contenders for detecting minor volatile species in moderately bright comets.

• OSTI ID: 22521695
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 816, 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
DEGASSING
HEAVY WATER
NASA
PLANETS
SATELLITES
SEAS
TELESCOPES
VOLATILITY