Radial Distribution of the Dust Comae of Comets 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdus̆áková and 46P/Wirtanen
Journal
Date Issued
2022
Author(s)
Lejoly, C.
•
Harris, W.
•
Samarasinha, N.
•
Mueller, B. E. A.
•
Howell, E.
•
Bodnarik, J.
•
Springmann, A.
•
Kareta, T.
•
Sharkey, B.
•
Noonan, J.
•
•
Bosch, J. -G.
•
Brosio, A.
•
Bryssinck, E.
•
de Vanssay, J. -B.
•
Hambsch, F. -J.
•
Ivanova, O.
•
Krushinsky, V.
•
Lin, Z. -Y.
•
Manzini, F.
•
Maury, A.
•
Moriya, N.
•
Ochner, P.
•
Oldani, V.
Abstract
There was an unprecedented opportunity to study the inner dust coma environments, where the dust and gas are not entirely decoupled, of comets 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdus̆áková (45P/HMP) from 2016 December 26 to 2017 March 15, and 46P/Wirtanen from 2018 November 10 to 2019 February 13, both in visible wavelengths. The radial profile slopes of these comets were measured in the R and HB-BC filters most representative of dust, and deviations from a radially expanding coma were identified as significant. The azimuthally averaged radial profile slope of comet 45P/HMP gradually changes from -1.81 ± 0.20 at 5.24 days preperihelion to -0.35 ± 0.16 at 74.41 days postperihelion. Contrastingly, the radial profile slope of 46P/Wirtanen stays fairly constant over the observed time period at -1.05 ± 0.05. Additionally, we find that the radial profile of 46P/Wirtanen is azimuthally dependent on the sky-plane-projected solar position angle, while that of 45P/HMP is not. These results suggest that comets 45P/HMP and 46P/Wirtanen have vastly different coma dust environments and that their dust expansion properties are distinct. As evident from these two comets, well-resolved inner comae are vital for detailed characterization of dust environments.
Volume
3
Issue
1
Start page
17
Issn Identifier
2632-3338
Ads BibCode
2022PSJ.....3...17L
Rights
open.access
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