C/2012 F6 (Lemmon) and C/2012 S1 (ISON) maps Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Cordiner M.A.
  2. Remijan A.J.
  3. Boissier J.
  4. Milam S.N.
  5. Mumma M.J.,Charnley S.B.
  6. Paganini L.
  7. Villanueva G.
  8. Bockelee-morvan D.
  9. Kuan Y.-J.,Chuang Y.-L.
  10. Lis D.C.
  11. Biver N.
  12. Crovisier J.
  13. Minniti D.
  14. Coulson I.M.
  15. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

Results are presented from the first cometary observations using the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA), including measurements of the spatially resolved distributions of HCN, HNC, H_2_CO, and dust within the comae of two comets: C/2012 F6 (Lemmon) and C/2012 S1 (ISON), observed at heliocentric distances of 1.5 AU and 0.54 AU, respectively. These observations (with angular resolution ~0.5"), reveal an unprecedented level of detail in the distributions of these fundamental cometary molecules, and demonstrate the power of ALMA for quantitative measurements of the distributions of molecules and dust in the inner comae of typical bright comets. In both comets, HCN is found to originate from (or within a few hundred kilometers of) the nucleus, with a spatial distribution largely consistent with spherically symmetric, uniform outflow. By contrast, the HNC distributions are clumpy and asymmetrical, with peaks at cometocentric radii ~500-1000km, consistent with release of HNC in collimated outflow(s). Compared to HCN, the H_2_ CO distribution in comet Lemmon is very extended. The interferometric visibility amplitudes are consistent with coma production of H_2_CO and HNC from unidentified precursor material(s) in both comets. Adopting a Haser model, the H_2_CO parent scale length is found to be a few thousand kilometers in Lemmon and only a few hundred kilometers in ISON, consistent with the destruction of the precursor by photolysis or thermal degradation at a rate that scales in proportion to the solar radiation flux.

Keywords
  1. comets
  2. radio-astronomy
  3. radio-spectroscopy
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2014ApJ...792L...2C
See also HTML
https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/792/L2
IVOA Identifier IVOID
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/792/L2
Document Object Identifer DOI
doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.17929002

Access

Web browser access HTML
http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/792/L2
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/792/L2
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/792/L2
IVOA Table Access TAP
http://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tap
Run SQL-like queries with TAP-enabled clients (e.g., TOPCAT).
IVOA Cone Search SCS
For use with a cone search client (e.g., TOPCAT).
http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/792/L2/list?
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/792/L2/list?
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/792/L2/list?
Web browser access HTML
https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/assocdata/?obs_collection=J/ApJ/792/L2

History

2017-04-13T10:02:46Z
Resource record created
2017-04-13T10:02:46Z
Created
2018-11-09T20:11:12Z
Updated

Contact

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