Volatile composition and outgassing in comet 46P/Wirtanen: Keck 2 observations with the newly upgraded NIRSPEC instrument
Abstract
A major upgrade to the NIRSPEC instrument at the Keck 2 telescope was successfully completed in time for near-infrared observations of comet 46P/Wirtanen during its long-anticipated close fly-by of Earth in December 2018. As part of a word-wide observing campaign, these studies revealed compositional abundances of several prebiotic molecules. Measured spatial distributions for some of these species are especially valuable to test for the presence of icy grains in the coma that may cause "hyper-activity" of 46P/Wirtanen, and for understanding whether different molecules are associated with common or distinct outgassing sources.
- Publication:
-
EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2019
- Pub Date:
- September 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019EPSC...13..955B