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Register a new userDust modelling and a dynamical study of comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak during its 2017 perihelion passage
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Added by
Francisco J. Pozuelos
Publication date
2018
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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Thanks to the Rosetta mission, our understanding of comets has greatly improved. A very good opportunity to apply this knowledge appeared in early 2017 with the appearance of the Jupiter family comet 41P/TGK. We performed an observational campaign with the TRAPPIST telescopes that covered almost the entire period of time when the comet was active. In this work we present a comprehensive study of the evolution of the dust environment of 41P based on observational data from January to July, 2017. Also, we performed numerical simulations to constrain its origin and dynamical nature. To model the observational data set we used a Monte Carlo dust tail model, which allowed us to derive the dust parameters that best describe its dust environment as a function of heliocentric distance. In order to study its dynamical evolution, we completed several experiments to evaluate the degree of stability of its orbit, its life time in its current region close to Earth, and its future behaviour. From the dust analysis, we found that comet 41P has a complex emission pattern that shifted from full isotropic to anisotropic ejection sometime during February 24-March 14 in 2017, and then from anisotropic to full isotropic again between June 7-28. During the anisotropic period, the emission was controlled by two strongly active areas, where one was located in the southern and one in the northern hemisphere of the nucleus. The total dust mass loss is estimated to be $sim7.5times10^{8}$ kg. From the dynamical simulations we estimate that $sim$3600 yr is the period of time during which 41P will remain in a similar orbit. Taking into account the estimated mass loss per orbit, after 3600 yr, the nucleus may lose about 30$%$ of its mass. However, based on its observed dust-to-water mass ratio and its propensity to outbursts, the lifetime of this comet could be much shorter.
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Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak (41P), a Jupiter family comet with three discoveries over about 100 years, is in a short-periodic orbit around the Sun with the perihelion close to the Earth distance. The 2017 apparition of 41P offered a long-lasting visibility of the comet at a close distance to Earth. The four month-long imaging campaign with the 2 m telescope at the Mount Wendelstein Observatory was aimed at characterizing dust activity and nucleus properties of the comet. Using a new analysis method of the inner coma flux, we derived a small mean equivalent radius of about 600 m for the nucleus with an unusual body axes ratio that is higher than two. The nucleus rotation axis was determined from the geometric appearance of coma structures, which were enhanced in the images. A long-lasting coma fan was produced by an extended region at high latitudes on the slowly rotating nucleus, whereas isolated jets originated from narrow, low latitude active regions on the nucleus. The dust activity of 41P, despite being difficult to quantify exactly because of an unknown phase function correction for the comet, indicates a steep radial profile that falls off with an increasing distance from the Sun. Colors and flux profiles provide evidence for dust fragmentation in the inner coma of the comet. A singular outburst event created various dust structures in the coma. The outburst came from an extended region on the nucleus and was due to either a landslide on the nucleus or a sudden material release from a subsurface pocket of volatile ice.
Cometary outgassing can produce torques that change the spin state of the nucleus, influencing the evolution and lifetimes of comets (1,2). If these torques spin up the rotation to the point that centripetal forces exceed the material strength of the nucleus, the comet may fragment (3). Torques that slow down the rotation can cause the spin state to become unstable, but if the torques persist, the nucleus may eventually reorient itself and start to spin up again (4). Simulations predict that most comets will go through a short phase of changing spin states, after which changes occur gradually over long times (5). We report on observations of comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak during its highly favourable close approach to Earth (0.142 au on April 1, 2017) that reveal a dramatic spin-down. Between March and May 2017, the nucleus apparent rotation period increased from 20 hours to over 46 hours, reflecting a rate of change more than an order of magnitude larger than has ever been measured before. This phenomenon must be caused by a fortuitous alignment of the comets gas emission in such a way as to produce an anomalously strong torque that is slowing the nucleus spin rate. The behaviour of 41P suggests that it is in a distinct evolutionary state and that its rotation may be approaching the point of instability.
We monitor the inner coma of comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kres{a}k searching for variations of its colour. Fast changes in colour of the comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kres{a}k provide important clues for better understanding of the microphysical properties of its dust. Using the 61-cm and 70-cm telescopes we measured the apparent magnitude of the comet with the V and R Johnson-Cousins filters from January 29 until April 25 of 2017. The inner coma ({sim} 2000 km) reveals fast and significant variations of colour. The most significant change was found between March 3 and 4 of 2017, when it changed from blue with a colour slope S {approx}(-10.15 {pm} 3.43){%} per 0.1 {mu}m to red with S {approx} (16.48 {pm} 4.27){%} per 0.1 {mu}m. This finding appears in good accordance with what was previously reported by Ivanova et al. (2017) for long-period comet C/2013 UQ4 (Catalina), suggesting that fast and significant variations of colour of dust could be a common feature of short- and long-period comets. We model observations of comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kres{a}k using the agglomerated debris particles and conclude that its inner coma consists of a mixture of at least two types of particles made of Mg-rich silicates and organics or Mg-Fe silicates.
We report on photometry and imaging of the Jupiter Family Comets 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak and 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova with the TRAPPIST-North telescope. We observed 41P on 34 nights from February 16, 2017 to July 27, 2017 pre- and post-perihelion (r$_h$=1.04 au), while we collected data for comet 45P from February 10 to March 30 after perihelion (r$_h$=0.53 au). We computed the production rates of the daughter species OH, NH, CN, C$_3$ and C$_2$ and we measured the dust proxy, Af$rho$, for both comets. The peak of water production rate of 41P was (3.46$pm$0.20)$times$10$^{27}$ molecules/s on April 3, 2017 when the comet was at 1.05 au from the Sun. We have shown that the activity of 41P is decreasing by about 30% to 40% from one apparition to the next. We measured a mean water production rate for 45P of (1.43$pm$0.62)$times$10$^{27}$ molecules/s during a month after perihelion. Our results show that these Jupiter Family Comets had low gas and dust activity and no outburst was detected. Relative abundances, expressed as ratios of production rates and Af$rho$ parameter with respect to OH and to CN, were compared to those measured in other comets. We found that 41P and 45P have a typical composition in term of carbon bearing species. The study of coma features exhibited by the CN gas species allowed the measurement of the rotation period of 41P, showing a surprisingly large increase of the rotation period from (30$pm$5) hrs at the end of March to (50$pm$10) hrs at the end of April, 2017 in agreement with recent observations by other teams.
We performed a monitoring observation of a Jupiter-Family comet, 17P/Holmes, during its 2014 perihelion passage to investigate its secular change in activity. The comet has drawn the attention of astronomers since its historic outburst in 2007, and this occasion was its first perihelion passage since then. We analyzed the obtained data using aperture photometry package and derived the Afrho parameter, a proxy for the dust production rate. We found that Afrho showed asymmetric properties with respect to the perihelion passage: it increased moderately from 100 cm at the heliocentric distance r_h=2.6-3.1 AU to a maximal value of 185 cm at r_h = 2.2 AU (near the perihelion) during the inbound orbit, while dropping rapidly to 35 cm at r_h = 3.2 AU during the outbound orbit. We applied a model for characterizing dust production rates as a function of r_h and found that the fractional active area of the cometary nucleus had dropped from 20%-40% in 2008-2011 (around the aphelion) to 0.1%-0.3% in 2014-2015 (around the perihelion). This result suggests that a dust mantle would have developed rapidly in only one orbital revolution around the sun. Although a minor eruption was observed on UT 2015 January 26 at r_h = 3.0 AU, the areas excavated by the 2007 outburst would be covered with a layer of dust (<~ 10 cm depth) which would be enough to insulate the subsurface ice and to keep the nucleus in a state of low activity.
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