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Title:
Ground-Based Optical and Spitzer Infrared Imaging Observations of Comet 21P/GIACOBINI-ZINNER
Authors:
Pittichová, Jana; Woodward, Charles E.; Kelley, Michael S.; Reach, William T.
Affiliation:
AA(Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA ; Astronomical Institute of Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, Bratislava IV, 84504, Slovakia ), AB(Department of Astronomy, School of Physics and Astronomy, 116 Church Street, S. E., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA ), AC(Department of Physics, University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Blvd., Orlando, FL 32816-2385, USA ), AD( Spitzer Science Center, MS 220-6, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA)
Publication:
The Astronomical Journal, Volume 136, Issue 3, pp. 1127-1136 (2008). (AJ Homepage)
Publication Date:
09/2008
Origin:
IOP
Keywords:
comets: individual: 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, infrared: solar system, meteors, meteoroids
DOI:
10.1088/0004-6256/136/3/1127
Bibliographic Code:
2008AJ....136.1127P

Abstract

We present ground-based optical and Spitzer Space Telescope infrared (IR) imaging observations of the ecliptic (Jupiter-family) comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, the parent body of the Draconid meteor stream, during its 2005 apparition. The onset of nucleus activity occurred at a pre-perihelion heliocentric distance, rh sime 3.80 AU, while post-perihelion 21P was dusty (peak Afρ = 131 cm–1) and active out to heliocentric distances gsim3.3 AU following a logarithmic slope with rh of –2.04. Coma colors, V – R = 0.524 ± 0.003, R – I = 0.487 ± 0.004, are redder than solar, yet comparable to colors derived for other Jupiter-family comets. A nucleus radius of 1.82 ± 0.05 km is derived from photometry at quiescence. Spitzer images post-perihelion exhibit an extensive coma with a prominent dust tail, where excess emission (over the dust continuum) in the 4.5 μm Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) image arises from volatile gaseous CO and/or CO2. No dust trail was detected (3σ surface brightness upper limit of 0.3 MJy sr–1 pixel–1) along the projected velocity vector of comet 21P in the MIPS 24 μm image suggesting that the number density of trail particles is lsim7 × 10–11 m–3. The bolometric albedo of 21P derived from the contemporaneous optical and Spitzer observations is A(θ = 22°) = 0.11, slightly lower than values derived for other comets at the same phase angle.
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