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Register a new userComet 240P/NEAT is Stirring
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Comets are primitive objects that formed in the protoplanetary disk, and have been largely preserved over the history of the Solar System. However, they are not pristine, and surfaces of cometary nuclei do evolve. In order to understand the extent of their primitive nature, we must define the mechanisms that affect their surfaces and comae. We examine the lightcurve of comet 240P/NEAT over three consecutive orbits, and investigate three events of significant brightening ($Delta m sim -2$ mag). Unlike typical cometary outbursts, each of the three events are long-lived, with enhanced activity for at least 3 to 6 months. The third event, observed by the Zwicky Transient Facility, occurred in at least two stages. The anomalous behavior appears to have started after the comet was perturbed by Jupiter in 2007, reducing its perihelion distance from 2.53 to 2.12 au. We suggest that the brightening events are temporary transitions to a higher baseline activity level, brought on by the increased insolation, which has warmed previously insulated sub-surface layers. The new activity is isolated to one or two locations on the nucleus, indicating that the surface or immediate sub-surface is heterogeneous. Further study of this phenomenon may provide insight into cometary outbursts, the structure of the near-surface nucleus, and cometary nucleus mantling.
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The dust production in debris discs by grinding collisions of planetesimals requires their orbits to be stirred. However, stirring levels remain largely unconstrained, and consequently the stirring mechanisms as well. This work shows how the sharpness of the outer edge of discs can be used to constrain the stirring levels. Namely, the sharper the edge is the lower the eccentricity dispersion must be. For a Rayleigh distribution of eccentricities ($e$), I find that the disc surface density near the outer edge can be parametrised as $tanh[(r_{max}-r)/l_{rm out}]$, where $r_{max}$ approximates the maximum semi-major axis and $l_{rm out}$ defines the edge smoothness. If the semi-major axis distribution has sharp edges $e_mathrm{rms}$ is roughly $1.2 l_{rm out}/r_{max}$, or $e_mathrm{rms}=0.77 l_{rm out}/r_{max}$ if semi-major axes have diffused due to self-stirring. This model is fitted to ALMA data of five wide discs: HD 107146, HD 92945, HD 206893, AU Mic and HR 8799. The results show that HD 107146, HD 92945 and AU Mic have the sharpest outer edges, corresponding to $e_mathrm{rms}$ values of $0.121pm0.05$, $0.15^{+0.07}_{-0.05}$ and $0.10pm0.02$ if their discs are self-stirred, suggesting the presence of Pluto-sized objects embedded in the disc. Although these stirring values are larger than typically assumed, the radial stirring of HD 92945 is in good agreement with its vertical stirring constrained by the disc height. HD 206893 and HR~8799, on the other hand, have smooth outer edges that are indicative of scattered discs since both systems have massive inner companions.
Main belt comets (MBCs) are a peculiar class of volatile-containing objects with comet-like morphology and asteroid-like orbits. However, MBCs are challenging targets to study remotely due to their small sizes and the relatively large distance they are from the Sun and the Earth. Recently, a number of weakly active short-period comets have been identified that might originate in the asteroid main belt. Among all of the known candidates, comet 66P/du Toit has been suggested to have one of the highest probabilities of coming from the main belt. We obtained medium and high-resolution spectra of 66P from 300-2500 nm with the X-shooter/VLT and the UVES/VLT instruments in July 2018. We also obtained a series of narrow-band images of 66P to monitor the gas and dust activity between May and July 2018 with TRAPPIST-South. In addition, we applied a dust model to characterize the dust coma of 66P and performed dynamical simulations to study the orbital evolution of 66P. We derive the OPR of ammonia (NH$_3$) in 66P to be 1.08$pm$0.06, which corresponds to a nuclear spin temperature of $sim$34 K. We computed the production rates of OH, NH, CN, C$_3,$ and C$_2$ radicals and measured the dust proxy, Af$rho$. The dust analysis reveals that the coma can be best-fit with an anisotropic model and the peak dust production rate is about 55 kg s$^{-1}$ at the perihelion distance of 1.29 au. Dynamical simulations show that 66P is moderately asteroidal with the capture time, t$_{cap} sim 10^4$ yr. Our observations demonstrate that the measured physical properties of 66P are consistent with other typical short-period comets and differ significantly from other MBCs. Therefore, 66P is unlikely to have a main belt origin.
During its two years mission around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, ESAs Rosetta spacecraft had the unique opportunity to follow closely a comet in the most active part of its orbit. Many studies have presented the typical features associated to the activity of the nucleus, such as localized dust and gas jets. Here we report on series of more energetic transient events observed during the three months surrounding the comets perihelion passage in August 2015. We detected and characterized 34 outbursts with the Rosetta cameras, one every 2.4 nucleus rotation. We identified 3 main dust plume morphologies associated to these events: a narrow jet, a broad fan, and more complex plumes featuring both previous types together. These plumes are comparable in scale and temporal variation to what has been observed on other comets. We present a map of the outbursts source locations, and discuss the associated topography. We find that the spatial distribution sources on the nucleus correlates well with morphological region boundaries, especially in areas marked by steep scarps or cliffs. Outbursts occur either in the early morning or shortly after the local noon, indicating two potential processes: Morning outbursts may be triggered by thermal stresses linked to the rapid change of temperature, afternoon events are most likely related to the diurnal or seasonal heat wave reaching volatiles buried under the first surface layer. In addition, we propose that some events can be the result of a completely different mechanism, in which most of the dust is released upon the collapse of a cliff.
The first 1000 km of the ion tail of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko were explored by the European Rosetta spacecraft, 2.7 au away from the Sun. We characterised the dynamics of both the solar wind and the cometary ions on the night-side of the comets atmosphere. We analysed in situ ion and magnetic field measurements and compared the data to a semi-analytical model. The cometary ions are observed flowing close to radially away from the nucleus during the entire excursion. The solar wind is deflected by its interaction with the new-born cometary ions. Two concentric regions appear, an inner region dominated by the expanding cometary ions and an outer region dominated by the solar wind particles. The single night-side excursion operated by Rosetta revealed that the near radial flow of the cometary ions can be explained by the combined action of three different electric field components, resulting from the ion motion, the electron pressure gradients, and the magnetic field draping. The observed solar wind deflection is governed mostly by the motional electric field.
Observations of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko were performed with MUSE at large heliocentric distances post-perihelion, between March 3 and 7, 2016. Those observations were part of a simultaneous ground-based campaign aimed at providing large-scale information about comet 67P that complement the ESA/Rosetta mission. We obtained a total of 38 datacubes over 5 nights. We take advantage of the integral field unit (IFU) nature of the instrument to study simultaneously the spectrum of 67Ps dust and its spatial distribution in the coma. We also look for evidence of gas emission in the coma. We produce a high quality spectrum of the dust coma over the optical range that could be used as a reference for future comet observations with the instrument. The slope of the dust reflectivity is of 10%$/100$ nm over the 480-900 nm interval, with a shallower slope towards redder wavelengths. We use the $mathrm{Afrho}$ to quantify the dust production and measure values of 65$pm$4 cm, 75$pm$4 cm, and 82$pm$4 cm in the V, R, and I bands respectively. We detect several jets in the coma, as well as the dust trail. Finally, using a novel method combining spectral and spatial information, we detect the forbidden oxygen emission line at 630 nm. Using this line we derive a water production rate of $1.5pm0.6 times 10^{26} mathrm{molec./s}$, assuming all oxygen atoms come from the photo-dissociation of water.
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