Upper Limits for Emissions in the Coma of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko near Perihelion as Measured by Rosetta’s Alice Far-UV Spectrograph
Abstract
The Alice far-UV imaging spectrograph (700-2050 Å) acquired over 70,000 spectral images during Rosetta’s 2 yr escort mission, including over 20,000 in the months surrounding perihelion when the comet activity level was highest. We have developed automated software to fit and remove ubiquitous H, O, C, S, and CO emissions from Alice spectra, along with reflected solar continuum and absorption from gaseous H2O in the comet’s coma, which we apply to a grand sum of integrations taken near perihelion. We present upper limits on the presence of 1 ion and 17 neutral atomic species for this time period. These limits are compared to results obtained by other Rosetta instruments where possible, as well as to CI carbonaceous chondrites and solar photospheric abundances.
- Publication:
-
The Astronomical Journal
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- DOI:
- 10.3847/1538-3881/ab552e
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1910.13577
- Bibcode:
- 2019AJ....158..252K
- Keywords:
-
- Short period comets;
- Ultraviolet astronomy;
- 1452;
- 1736;
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 9 pages, 3 figures