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- Biver, N., et al.
(author)
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Radio observations of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 before and after Deep Impact
- 2007
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In: Icarus. - : Elsevier BV. - 1090-2643 .- 0019-1035. ; 191:2, s. 494-512
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Comet 9P/Tempel 1 was the target of a multi-wavelength worldwide investigation in 2005. The NASA Deep Impact mission reached the comet on 4.24 July 2005, delivering a 370-kg impactor which hit the comet at 10.3 km s -1 . Following this impact, a cloud of gas and dust was excavated from the comet nucleus. The comet was observed in 2005 prior to and after the impact, at 18-cm wavelength with the Nançay radio telescope, in the millimeter range with the IRAM and CSO radio telescopes, and at 557 GHz with the Odin satellite. OH observations at Nançay provided a 4-month monitoring of the outgassing of the comet from March to June, followed by the observation of H 2 O with Odin from June to August 2005. The peak of outgassing was found to be around 1 × 10 28 molec. s -1 between May and July. Observations conducted with the IRAM 30-m radio telescope in May and July 2005 resulted in detections of HCN, CH 3 OH and H 2 S with classical abundances relative to water (0.12, 2.7 and 0.5%, respectively). In addition, a variation of the HCN production rate with a period of 1.73 ± 0.10 days was observed in May 2005, consistent with the 1.7-day rotation period of the nucleus. The phase of these variations, as well as those of CN seen in July by Jehin et al. [Jehin, E., Manfroid, J., Hutsemékers, D., Cochran, A.L., Arpigny, C., Jackson, W.M., Rauer, H., Schulz, R., Zucconi, J.-M., 2006. Astrophys. J. 641, L145-L148], is consistent with a rotation period of the nucleus of 1.715 days and a strong variation of the outgassing activity by a factor 3 from minimum to maximum. This also implies that the impact took place on the rising phase of the "natural" outgassing which reached its maximum ≈4 h after the impact. Post-impact observations at IRAM and CSO did not reveal a significant change of the outgassing rates and relative abundances, with the exception of CH 3 OH which may have been more abundant by up to one order of magnitude in the ejecta. Most other variations are linked to the intrinsic variability of the comet. The Odin satellite monitored nearly continuously the H 2 O line at 557 GHz during the 38 h following the impact on the 4th of July, in addition to weekly monitoring. Once the periodic variations related to the nucleus rotation are removed, a small increase of outgassing related to the impact is present, which corresponds to the release of ≈ 5000 ± 2000 tons of water. Two other bursts of activity, also observed at other wavelengths, were seen on 23 June and 7 July; they correspond to even larger releases of gas. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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2. |
- Biver, N., et al.
(author)
-
Radio observations of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 before and after Deep Impact
- 2007
-
In: Icarus. - : Elsevier BV. - 1090-2643 .- 0019-1035. ; 187:1, s. 253-271
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Comet 9P/Tempel 1 was the target of a multi-wavelength worldwide investigation in 2005. The NASA Deep Impact mission reached the comet on 4.24 July 2005, delivering a 370-kg impactor which hit the comet at 10.3 km s -1 . Following this impact, a cloud of gas and dust was excavated from the comet nucleus. The comet was observed in 2005 prior to and after the impact, at 18-cm wavelength with the Nançay radio telescope, in the millimeter range with the IRAM and CSO radio telescopes, and at 557 GHz with the Odin satellite. OH observations at Nançay provided a 4-month monitoring of the outgassing of the comet from March to June, followed by the observation of H 2 O with Odin from June to August 2005. The peak of outgassing was found to be around 1 × 10 28 molec. s -1 between May and July. Observations conducted with the IRAM 30-m radio telescope in May and July 2005 resulted in detections of HCN, CH 3 OH and H 2 S with classical abundances relative to water (0.12, 2.7 and 0.5%, respectively). In addition, a variation of the HCN production rate with a period of 1.73 ± 0.10 days was observed in May 2005, consistent with the 1.7-day rotation period of the nucleus. The phase of these variations, as well as those of CN seen in July by Jehin et al. [Jehin, E., Manfroid, J., Hutsemékers, D., Cochran, A.L., Arpigny, C., Jackson, W.M., Rauer, H., Schulz, R., Zucconi, J.-M., 2006. Astrophys. J. 641, L145-L148], is consistent with a rotation period of the nucleus of 1.715 days and a strong variation of the outgassing activity by a factor 3 from minimum to maximum. This also implies that the impact took place on the rising phase of the "natural" outgassing which reached its maximum ≈4 h after the impact. Post-impact observations at IRAM and CSO did not reveal a significant change of the outgassing rates and relative abundances, with the exception of CH 3 OH which may have been more abundant by up to one order of magnitude in the ejecta. Most other variations are linked to the intrinsic variability of the comet. The Odin satellite monitored nearly continuously the H 2 O line at 557 GHz during the 38 h following the impact on the 4th of July, in addition to weekly monitoring. Once the periodic variations related to the nucleus rotation are removed, a small increase of outgassing related to the impact is present, which corresponds to the release of ≈ 5000 ± 2000 tons of water. Two other bursts of activity, also observed at other wavelengths, were seen on 23 June and 7 July; they correspond to even larger releases of gas. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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3. |
- Crovisier, J., et al.
(author)
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The chemical composition of 9P/tempel 1 from radio observations
- 2009
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In: ESO Astrophysics Symposia. - Berlin, Heidelberg : Springer Berlin Heidelberg. - 1431-2433 .- 1611-6143. - 9783540769583 ; 2009, s. 243-248
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In 2005, as part of a world-wide multi-wavelength investigation of comet 9P/Tempel 1 in support to the Deep Impact mission, we conducted radio spectroscopic observations with the Nançay radio telescope, the Odin satellite, the CSO 10-m and the IRAM 30-m telescopes. We report here our results concerning the chemical composition of the comet. The relative abundances of the detected species (H2O, CH3OH, H2S, HCN) or their upper limits (CO, H2CO, CS) are comparable to the mean values observed in other comets. No significant changes of the outgassing rates (except possibly for CH3OH) or of the molecular abundances were observed following the impact.
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5. |
- Engels, D., et al.
(author)
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Variability of masers in circumstellar shells on timescales of decades
- 2007
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In: Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union. - 1743-9213 .- 1743-9221. ; 3:S242, s. 318-319
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Based on a 15-20 year long monitoring program of H2O masers and new observations of OH masers discovered 35 years ago, we studied the variability of maser emission in AGB stars over timescales of decades. The H2O maser features in the semi-regular variable stars RX Boo and SV Peg, and of the Mira stars U Her and R Cas, showed strong fluctuations superposed in case of the Mira stars on regular variations due to the pulsation of the stars. The spatial distribution of the emission regions in RX Boo and U Her showed deviations from spherical symmetry, which remained unchanged over >10 years. We conclude that the spatial asymmetry is determined by the underlying asymmetry of the mass loss process. There is no evidence that mass loss rates or the wind geometry in these stars have varied over the last 20 years. In 2005 we re-detected at 1612 MHz the 114 OH/IR stars discovered before 1978, implying an OH maser lifetime of >2800 years (1). © 2008 International Astronomical Union.
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7. |
- Kalenskii, S.V., et al.
(author)
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Class I methanol masers in regions of low-mass star formation
- 2007
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In: Proceedings of "Millimeter wave astronomy and star formation", ed. I. Zinchenko, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, August 2007, Inst. of Applied Physics RAS. ; , s. 10-14
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)
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10. |
- Larsson, Bengt, et al.
(author)
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Molecular oxygen in the rho Ophiuchi cloud
- 2007
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In: Astronomy & Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 466:3, s. 5-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Context: Molecular oxygen, O2, has been expected historically to be an abundant component of the chemical species in molecular clouds and, as such, an important coolant of the dense interstellar medium. However, a number of attempts from both ground and from space have failed to detect O2 emission.Aims: The work described here uses heterodyne spectroscopy from space to search for molecular oxygen in the interstellar medium. Methods: The Odin satellite carries a 1.1 m sub-millimeter dish and a dedicated 119 GHz receiver for the ground state line of O2. Starting in 2002, the star forming molecular cloud core ρ Oph A was observed with Odin for 34 days during several observing runs.Results: We detect a spectral line at v_LSR =+3.5 km s-1 with Δ v_FWHM=1.5 km s-1, parameters which are also common to other species associated with ρ Oph A. This feature is identified as the O2 (NJ = 11 - 1_0) transition at 118 750.343 MHz.Conclusions: The abundance of molecular oxygen, relative to H{2} , is 5 × 10-8 averaged over the Odin beam. This abundance is consistently lower than previously reported upper limits.Based on observations with Odin, a Swedish-led satellite project funded jointly by the Swedish National Space Board (SNSB), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the National Technology Agency of Finland (Tekes) and Centre National d'Étude Spatiale (CNES). The Swedish Space Corporation has been the industrial prime contractor and also is operating the satellite. Appendix A is only available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org
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