Kiso Dust Trail Survey during 2002 and 2003
Abstract
Cometary dust trails were discovered by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS). Recent visible detection by Kiso 105cm Schmidt opened the new possibility to study the dust trails at any time. Dust trails consist of large (mm to cm), dark particles, and they are the principal mass loss mechanism for the comets with which they were associated. Different from the 'dust tail' grains blown outward in short time scale due to the comet's gas outflow and solar radiation pressure, the orbits of dust trails are very similar to that of their parent comets and gradually drift away toward the trailing direction. They have given us the unique means of probing the relationship between the zodiacal cloud complex and comets. The existence of 81P/Wild 2 dust trail discovered by Kiso showed the importance of comet mission. We have performed the cometary dust trail survey by Kiso 105cm Schmidt telescope. With the flexible and quick follow-up framework, as well as the advantage of the wide field view of 50'x50' and bright optics of F3.1, we try to detect faint and extended dust trails at the vicinity of short period comet. Since most of short period comets are located near the ecliptic plan, it is not easy to identify trail to tail by a snap shot. If some candidates were found, they were monitored for a several months. As a result, we detect four new trails. In this paper, we report the characteristics of these four trails. In addition, we obtained a sequence of dust trail images of ROSETTA mission target, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, whose trail was discovered by IRAS, during the apparition of 2002. Based on these images, we discuss the impact probability to the spacecraft.
- Publication:
-
35th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004cosp...35.1219I