The Evolution of Activity and Chemical Composition in Rosetta’s Comet Targets across Multiple Apparitions: Complications for CS2 as the CS Parent in Comet Nuclei
Jupiter-family comets are ephemeral small bodies injected into the inner solar system from the Kuiper Belt, doomed to either sublimate all their volatiles and become inert or violently shatter from the activity. We investigate two target candidates of the ESA Rosetta mission, comets 46P/Wirtanen and...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2023-01-01
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| Series: | The Planetary Science Journal |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/accb58 |
| _version_ | 1797330614921199616 |
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| author | John W. Noonan Joel Wm. Parker Walter M. Harris Steven Bromley Mohammad Saki Youssef Moulane Davide Farnocchia Marco Micheli Jian-Yang Li Kathleen E. Mandt Kumar Venkataramani Dennis Bodewits |
| author_facet | John W. Noonan Joel Wm. Parker Walter M. Harris Steven Bromley Mohammad Saki Youssef Moulane Davide Farnocchia Marco Micheli Jian-Yang Li Kathleen E. Mandt Kumar Venkataramani Dennis Bodewits |
| author_sort | John W. Noonan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Jupiter-family comets are ephemeral small bodies injected into the inner solar system from the Kuiper Belt, doomed to either sublimate all their volatiles and become inert or violently shatter from the activity. We investigate two target candidates of the ESA Rosetta mission, comets 46P/Wirtanen and 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which had favorable apparitions for Earth-based observations in 2018–2019 and 2021, respectively. Using the Hubble Space Telescope STIS and COS instruments, we observed OH and CS emissions to characterize production rates of H _2 O and CS, established Af ρ values, and placed upper limits on the production rate of C _2 and its parent. We find CS/H _2 O relative abundances that are significantly (5 σ –7 σ ) larger than previous remote near-UV (NUV) measurements of 46P and 67P at similar heliocentric distances and CS/H _2 O values larger than those obtained via contemporaneous submillimeter observations for the same apparitions. We also find that for 67P the remote derivations of CS _2 /H _2 O ratios are substantially (∼50×) higher than the values measured by the ROSINA mass spectrometer on board the Rosetta spacecraft for all NUV-derived CS _2 production rates. The discrepancy points toward an unidentified CS parent or parents with contributing factors from uncertainties with the fluorescence efficiencies of the CS (0,0) band of the A ^1 Π– X ^1 Σ ^+ system around 2580 Å. Given the significance of understanding the chemistry and dissociation physics of sulfur-bearing molecules in comets for tracing planetesimal formation environments, as well as the limited studies in this area, we propose several hypotheses to explain this discrepancy and outline future studies to address these issues. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T07:23:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-65a60d9eae8348609b1b6a7d94380db2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2632-3338 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T07:23:16Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Planetary Science Journal |
| spelling | doaj.art-65a60d9eae8348609b1b6a7d94380db22024-02-02T22:47:31ZengIOP PublishingThe Planetary Science Journal2632-33382023-01-01447310.3847/PSJ/accb58The Evolution of Activity and Chemical Composition in Rosetta’s Comet Targets across Multiple Apparitions: Complications for CS2 as the CS Parent in Comet NucleiJohn W. Noonan0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2152-6987Joel Wm. Parker1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3672-0603Walter M. Harris2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8378-4503Steven Bromley3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2110-8152Mohammad Saki4https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2277-6232Youssef Moulane5https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9784-6886Davide Farnocchia6https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0774-884XMarco Micheli7https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7895-8209Jian-Yang Li8https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3841-9977Kathleen E. Mandt9https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-3315Kumar Venkataramani10https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3321-1472Dennis Bodewits11https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2668-7248Physics Department, Edmund C. Leach Science Center, Auburn University , Auburn, AL 36849, USA ; noonan@auburn.eduPlanetary Science Directorate, Southwest Research Institute , Suite 300, 1050 Walnut Street, Boulder, CO 80302, USALunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona , Tucson, AZ 85721-0092, USAPhysics Department, Edmund C. Leach Science Center, Auburn University , Auburn, AL 36849, USA ; noonan@auburn.eduPhysics Department, Edmund C. Leach Science Center, Auburn University , Auburn, AL 36849, USA ; noonan@auburn.eduPhysics Department, Edmund C. Leach Science Center, Auburn University , Auburn, AL 36849, USA ; noonan@auburn.eduJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USAESA NEO Coordination Centre , Largo Galileo Galilei, 1, I-00044 Frascati (RM), ItalyPlanetary Science Institute , 1700 E. Ft. Lowell Road, Suite 106, Tucson, AZ 85719, USAJohns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory , 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel, MD 20723, USAPhysics Department, Edmund C. Leach Science Center, Auburn University , Auburn, AL 36849, USA ; noonan@auburn.edu; IPAC, California Institute of Technology , 1200 E. California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USAPhysics Department, Edmund C. Leach Science Center, Auburn University , Auburn, AL 36849, USA ; noonan@auburn.eduJupiter-family comets are ephemeral small bodies injected into the inner solar system from the Kuiper Belt, doomed to either sublimate all their volatiles and become inert or violently shatter from the activity. We investigate two target candidates of the ESA Rosetta mission, comets 46P/Wirtanen and 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which had favorable apparitions for Earth-based observations in 2018–2019 and 2021, respectively. Using the Hubble Space Telescope STIS and COS instruments, we observed OH and CS emissions to characterize production rates of H _2 O and CS, established Af ρ values, and placed upper limits on the production rate of C _2 and its parent. We find CS/H _2 O relative abundances that are significantly (5 σ –7 σ ) larger than previous remote near-UV (NUV) measurements of 46P and 67P at similar heliocentric distances and CS/H _2 O values larger than those obtained via contemporaneous submillimeter observations for the same apparitions. We also find that for 67P the remote derivations of CS _2 /H _2 O ratios are substantially (∼50×) higher than the values measured by the ROSINA mass spectrometer on board the Rosetta spacecraft for all NUV-derived CS _2 production rates. The discrepancy points toward an unidentified CS parent or parents with contributing factors from uncertainties with the fluorescence efficiencies of the CS (0,0) band of the A ^1 Π– X ^1 Σ ^+ system around 2580 Å. Given the significance of understanding the chemistry and dissociation physics of sulfur-bearing molecules in comets for tracing planetesimal formation environments, as well as the limited studies in this area, we propose several hypotheses to explain this discrepancy and outline future studies to address these issues.https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/accb58Short period cometsUltraviolet observatoriesHubble Space TelescopeAtomic spectroscopyMolecular spectroscopy |
| spellingShingle | John W. Noonan Joel Wm. Parker Walter M. Harris Steven Bromley Mohammad Saki Youssef Moulane Davide Farnocchia Marco Micheli Jian-Yang Li Kathleen E. Mandt Kumar Venkataramani Dennis Bodewits The Evolution of Activity and Chemical Composition in Rosetta’s Comet Targets across Multiple Apparitions: Complications for CS2 as the CS Parent in Comet Nuclei The Planetary Science Journal Short period comets Ultraviolet observatories Hubble Space Telescope Atomic spectroscopy Molecular spectroscopy |
| title | The Evolution of Activity and Chemical Composition in Rosetta’s Comet Targets across Multiple Apparitions: Complications for CS2 as the CS Parent in Comet Nuclei |
| title_full | The Evolution of Activity and Chemical Composition in Rosetta’s Comet Targets across Multiple Apparitions: Complications for CS2 as the CS Parent in Comet Nuclei |
| title_fullStr | The Evolution of Activity and Chemical Composition in Rosetta’s Comet Targets across Multiple Apparitions: Complications for CS2 as the CS Parent in Comet Nuclei |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Evolution of Activity and Chemical Composition in Rosetta’s Comet Targets across Multiple Apparitions: Complications for CS2 as the CS Parent in Comet Nuclei |
| title_short | The Evolution of Activity and Chemical Composition in Rosetta’s Comet Targets across Multiple Apparitions: Complications for CS2 as the CS Parent in Comet Nuclei |
| title_sort | evolution of activity and chemical composition in rosetta s comet targets across multiple apparitions complications for cs2 as the cs parent in comet nuclei |
| topic | Short period comets Ultraviolet observatories Hubble Space Telescope Atomic spectroscopy Molecular spectroscopy |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/accb58 |
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