A Multiwavelength Investigation of the Remains of Sungrazing Comet Lovejoy (C/2011 W3)

Comet Lovejoy (C/2011 W3) was the first Kreutz sungrazing comet in the modern telescopic era (since 1970) to survive perihelion, although the extent to which the nucleus survived is unclear. We used observations by SOHO and STEREO obtained near perihelion as well as observations we acquired with the Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, Swift, Siding Spring Observatory, Las Campanas Observatory, and Lowell Observatory in the days and weeks after perihelion (2011 December 16) to constrain the size of any remaining nucleus and study the effects of the intense solar radiation near perihelion (q 1.2 solar radii) on the comet. Preliminary analysis suggests that no substantial nucleus survived for more than a few days after perihelion. However, significant quantities of dust were produced and were still visible in Spitzer data acquired in early 2012 February. Analysis of the data is ongoing and new results will be reported.

Acknowledgements: Support for SOHO and STEREO data analysis was provided by NASA Planetary Mission Data Analysis Program grant NNX10AP75G. Telescope time was granted under HST program DD 12792, Spitzer program 80237, and Swift target ID 32251.