12P/Pons-Brooks magnitude and activity Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Vander Donckt M.
  2. Jehin E.
  3. Aravind K.
  4. Adami C.
  5. Hmiddouch S.
  6. Manfroid J.,Ganesh S.
  7. Benkhaldoun Z.
  8. Delsanti A.
  9. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is a Halley-type comet known for its outbursting activity during its previous perihelia in 1883 and 1953. Its strong activity and favourable observing geometry gave a great opportunity to study this outburst-prone comet during its 2024 return with modern instruments. We aim to study the activity and composition of 12P/Pons-Brooks during its 2024 passage through long-slit spectroscopy and narrow- and broad-band photometry and imaging. The photometric survey contains over 130 nights of observation with TRAPPIST-North and -South from May 6, 2023 (rh=4.62au, inbound), to September 7, 2024 (rh=2.06au, outbound). We collected images with broad- band Johnson-Cousins filters (BVRcIc) and narrow-band HB filters (OH, CN, C2, C3, NH, and dust continuum). We obtained long-slit low-resolution spectra at the Observatoire de Haute Provence with the MISTRAL instrument on the night of March 23, 2024, at a heliocentric distance of 0.94au. The spectra were used to analyse the emissions from the different molecular bands. We detect nine strong outbursts, with an approximate two-week periodicity; OH production rate reaching values above 10^29^ molecules/s and A(0)f{rho} dust activity proxy above 10^5^cm. Dust images show the formation of a double-horned-shaped coma and the expansion of a dust shell in the days following the strongest outbursts. The gas-to-dust ratio behaviour during these events differs from other observations of outbursting comets closer to the Sun, while outbursts rather share similarities with the centaur comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann's. The analysis of CN jets between 1.02 and 2.13au suggests a nucleus rotation period of either 29.45h or 58.90h and a gas ejection velocity of 1.03+/-0.09km/s. From the MISTRAL spectra, emission bands from C_2_, NH_2_, and CN were observed, as well as H_2_ O+ in the anti-sunward direction.

Keywords
  1. solar-system
  2. comets
  3. chemical-abundances
  4. visible-astronomy
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2026A&A...705A..89V
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https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/705/A89
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History

2026-01-09T10:20:47Z
Resource record created
2026-01-09T09:22:32Z
Updated
2026-01-09T10:20:47Z
Created

Contact

Name
CDS support team
Postal Address
CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
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cds-question@unistra.fr