Inferring the CO2 Abundance in Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková from [O I] Observations: Implications for the Source of Icy Grains in Cometary Comae
The Planetary Science Journal(2024)
摘要
The study of cometary composition is important for understanding our solar
system's early evolutionary processes. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a common
hypervolatile in comets that can drive activity but is more difficult to study
than other hypervolatiles due to severe telluric absorption. CO2 can only be
directly observed from space-borne assets. Therefore, a proxy is needed to
measure CO2 abundances in comets using ground-based observations. The flux
ratio of the [O I] 5577 A line to the sum of the [O I] 6300 A and [O I] 6364 A
lines (hereafter referred to as the [O I] line ratio) has, with some success,
been used in the past as such a proxy. We present an [O I] line ratio analysis
of comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková (HMP), using data obtained with
the Tull Coudé Spectrograph on the 2.7-meter Harlan J. Smith telescope at
McDonald Observatory, taken from UT February 21-23, 2017 when the comet was at
heliocentric distances of 1.12-1.15 AU. HMP is a hyperactive Jupiter family
comet (JFC). Icy grains driven out by CO2 sublimation have been proposed as a
driver of hyperactivity, but the CO2 abundance of HMP has not been measured.
From our [O I] line ratio measurements, we find a CO2/H2O ratio for HMP of 22.9
+/- 1.4
comets (including HMP) in the literature that have data for both values. We
find no correlation. These findings imply that CO2 sublimation driving out icy
grains is not the only factor influencing active fractions for cometary nuclei.
更多查看译文
关键词
Comets,Comae,Carbon dioxide,Comet volatiles,Short period comets
AI 理解论文
溯源树
样例
生成溯源树,研究论文发展脉络
Chat Paper
正在生成论文摘要