"Hot" OH and CN - evidence for organic molecules close to the nucleus of comet Halley?
Abstract
During the encounter session of Vega 2 with comet Halley on March 6, 1986, advantage was taken of the approach motion and of the resulting zoom effect to assemble the monochromatic charts produced by the three-channel spectrometer in composite images at selected wavelengths. Two jets are clearly apparent in most of the monochromatic images. The OH and CN emissions originating from the jets exhibit a pronounced peculiarity. The proposed mechanism, specific of the jets, is the photodissociation of one or several organic molecules of the type A-OH or B-CN which would release "hot" OH and CN when submitted to the solar UV flux.
- Publication:
-
Physics and Mechanics of Cometary Materials
- Pub Date:
- December 1989
- Bibcode:
- 1989ESASP.302..177C
- Keywords:
-
- Comet Nuclei;
- Halley'S Comet;
- Spectrophotometry;
- Carbohydrates;
- Nitrogen Compounds;
- Vega Project;
- Astrophysics;
- Comet 1986 III Halley;
- Cometary Nuclei: Organic Molecules;
- Cometary Nuclei: Spectrophotometry;
- Cometary Nuclei: CN;
- Cometary Nuclei: OH