Lingering grains of truth around comet 17p/holmes

R. Stevenson, J. M. Bauer, E. A. Kramer, T. Grav, A. K. Mainzer, J. R. Masiero

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Comet 17P/Holmes underwent a massive outburst in 2007 October, brightening by a factor of almost a million in under 48 hr. We used infrared images taken by the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer mission to characterize the comet as it appeared at a heliocentric distance of 5.1 AU almost 3 yr after the outburst. The comet appeared to be active with a coma and dust trail along the orbital plane. We constrained the diameter, albedo, and beaming parameter of the nucleus to 4.135 ± 0.610 km, 0.03 ± 0.01, and 1.03 ± 0.21, respectively. The properties of the nucleus are consistent with those of other Jupiter family comets. The best-fit temperature of the coma was 134 ± 11 K, slightly higher than the blackbody temperature at that heliocentric distance. Using Finson-Probstein modeling, we found that the morphology of the trail was consistent with ejection during the 2007 outburst and was made up of dust grains between 250 μm and a few cm in radius. The trail mass was ∼1.2-5.3 × 1010 kg.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number116
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume787
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • comets: general
  • comets: individual (17P/Holmes)

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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