Scattered Lyman- α radiation of comet 2012/S1 (ISON) observed by SUMER/SOHO

W. Curdt; H. Boehnhardt; J. B. Vincent; S. K. Solanki; U. Schühle; L. Teriaca

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201423990

Scattered Lyman- α radiation of comet 2012/S1 (ISON) observed by SUMER/SOHO

W. Curdt
, H. Boehnhardt
, J. B. Vincent
, S. K. Solanki
, U. Schühle
, L. Teriaca

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

During its sungrazing perihelion passage, comet ISON appeared in the field of view of the SUMER spectrometer and allowed unique observations at far-ultraviolet wavelengths with high spatial and temporal resolution. We report results of these observations completed on November 28, 2013, when the comet was only 2.82 R_⊙ away from the Sun. Our data show the arrow-shaped dust tail in Ly-α emission trailing behind the predicted position of the nucleus, but offset from the trajectory. We interpret the emission as sunlight that is scattered at μm-sized dust particles. We modeled the dust emission and dynamics to reproduce the appearance of the tail. We were unable to detect any signature of cometary gas or plasma around the expected position of the nucleus and conclude that the outgassing processes must have stopped before the observation started. Moreover, the model we used to reproduce the observed dust tail needs a sharp fall-off of the dust production hours before perihelion transit. We compare the radiances of the disk and the dust tail for an estimate of the dust column density and tail mass.

Original language	English
Article number	L1
Journal	Astronomy and Astrophysics
Volume	567
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201423990
Publication status	Published - Jul 2014

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
W.T. Thompson provided us with HPC coordinates as seen from SOHO. An exceptional effort of D. Germerott and the SOHO flight operations team was required for this time-critical observation. We received very constructive comments from an anonymous referee. The help of all of them is greatly acknowledged. The SUMER and LASCO projects are financially supported by DLR, CNES, NASA, and the ESA PRODEX Programme (Swiss contribution). SUMER and LASCO are part of SOHO of ESA and NASA.

Keywords

Comets: general
Comets: individual: 2012/S1 (ISON)
Scattering
Sun: UV radiation
Techniques: imaging spectroscopy

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Cite this

@article{e641f4a1105f4713b303f486c7dafe3c,

title = "Scattered Lyman- α radiation of comet 2012/S1 (ISON) observed by SUMER/SOHO",

abstract = "During its sungrazing perihelion passage, comet ISON appeared in the field of view of the SUMER spectrometer and allowed unique observations at far-ultraviolet wavelengths with high spatial and temporal resolution. We report results of these observations completed on November 28, 2013, when the comet was only 2.82 R⊙ away from the Sun. Our data show the arrow-shaped dust tail in Ly-α emission trailing behind the predicted position of the nucleus, but offset from the trajectory. We interpret the emission as sunlight that is scattered at μm-sized dust particles. We modeled the dust emission and dynamics to reproduce the appearance of the tail. We were unable to detect any signature of cometary gas or plasma around the expected position of the nucleus and conclude that the outgassing processes must have stopped before the observation started. Moreover, the model we used to reproduce the observed dust tail needs a sharp fall-off of the dust production hours before perihelion transit. We compare the radiances of the disk and the dust tail for an estimate of the dust column density and tail mass.",

keywords = "Comets: general, Comets: individual: 2012/S1 (ISON), Scattering, Sun: UV radiation, Techniques: imaging spectroscopy",

author = "W. Curdt and H. Boehnhardt and Vincent, \{J. B.\} and Solanki, \{S. K.\} and U. Sch{\"u}hle and L. Teriaca",

note = "Funding Information: W.T. Thompson provided us with HPC coordinates as seen from SOHO. An exceptional effort of D. Germerott and the SOHO flight operations team was required for this time-critical observation. We received very constructive comments from an anonymous referee. The help of all of them is greatly acknowledged. The SUMER and LASCO projects are financially supported by DLR, CNES, NASA, and the ESA PRODEX Programme (Swiss contribution). SUMER and LASCO are part of SOHO of ESA and NASA.",

year = "2014",

month = jul,

doi = "10.1051/0004-6361/201423990",

language = "English",

volume = "567",

journal = "Astronomy and Astrophysics",

issn = "0004-6361",

publisher = "EDP Sciences",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Scattered Lyman- α radiation of comet 2012/S1 (ISON) observed by SUMER/SOHO

AU - Curdt, W.

AU - Boehnhardt, H.

AU - Vincent, J. B.

AU - Solanki, S. K.

AU - Schühle, U.

AU - Teriaca, L.

N1 - Funding Information: W.T. Thompson provided us with HPC coordinates as seen from SOHO. An exceptional effort of D. Germerott and the SOHO flight operations team was required for this time-critical observation. We received very constructive comments from an anonymous referee. The help of all of them is greatly acknowledged. The SUMER and LASCO projects are financially supported by DLR, CNES, NASA, and the ESA PRODEX Programme (Swiss contribution). SUMER and LASCO are part of SOHO of ESA and NASA.

PY - 2014/7

Y1 - 2014/7

N2 - During its sungrazing perihelion passage, comet ISON appeared in the field of view of the SUMER spectrometer and allowed unique observations at far-ultraviolet wavelengths with high spatial and temporal resolution. We report results of these observations completed on November 28, 2013, when the comet was only 2.82 R⊙ away from the Sun. Our data show the arrow-shaped dust tail in Ly-α emission trailing behind the predicted position of the nucleus, but offset from the trajectory. We interpret the emission as sunlight that is scattered at μm-sized dust particles. We modeled the dust emission and dynamics to reproduce the appearance of the tail. We were unable to detect any signature of cometary gas or plasma around the expected position of the nucleus and conclude that the outgassing processes must have stopped before the observation started. Moreover, the model we used to reproduce the observed dust tail needs a sharp fall-off of the dust production hours before perihelion transit. We compare the radiances of the disk and the dust tail for an estimate of the dust column density and tail mass.

AB - During its sungrazing perihelion passage, comet ISON appeared in the field of view of the SUMER spectrometer and allowed unique observations at far-ultraviolet wavelengths with high spatial and temporal resolution. We report results of these observations completed on November 28, 2013, when the comet was only 2.82 R⊙ away from the Sun. Our data show the arrow-shaped dust tail in Ly-α emission trailing behind the predicted position of the nucleus, but offset from the trajectory. We interpret the emission as sunlight that is scattered at μm-sized dust particles. We modeled the dust emission and dynamics to reproduce the appearance of the tail. We were unable to detect any signature of cometary gas or plasma around the expected position of the nucleus and conclude that the outgassing processes must have stopped before the observation started. Moreover, the model we used to reproduce the observed dust tail needs a sharp fall-off of the dust production hours before perihelion transit. We compare the radiances of the disk and the dust tail for an estimate of the dust column density and tail mass.

KW - Comets: general

KW - Comets: individual: 2012/S1 (ISON)

KW - Scattering

KW - Sun: UV radiation

KW - Techniques: imaging spectroscopy

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84903833620

U2 - 10.1051/0004-6361/201423990

DO - 10.1051/0004-6361/201423990

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84903833620

SN - 0004-6361

VL - 567

JO - Astronomy and Astrophysics

JF - Astronomy and Astrophysics

M1 - L1

ER -

Scattered Lyman- α radiation of comet 2012/S1 (ISON) observed by SUMER/SOHO

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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