The Infrared Spectral Energy Distribution And Polarization Of Comet C/1995 O1 (Hale–Bopp) During 1997

Comets, such as C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp), are important to studies of the origins of the solar system because they are believed to be frozen reservoirs of the most primitive pre-solar dust grains and ices. Here, we report 1.2–18.5 μm infrared (IR) spectrophotometric and polarimetric observations of com...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Earth, moon, and planets moon, and planets, 1998-01, Vol.81 (3), p.217-222
Main Authors: Woodward, Charles E, Gehrz, R D, Mason, C G, Jones, T J, Williams, D M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Albedo
Angle of reflection
Astronomy
Comet nuclei
Comets
Dust
Emissions
Hale-Bopp comet
Infrared radiation
Infrared spectrophotometers
Polarization
Scattering angle
Solar system
Spectral energy distribution
Spectrophotometry
Thermal emission
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Comets, such as C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp), are important to studies of the origins of the solar system because they are believed to be frozen reservoirs of the most primitive pre-solar dust grains and ices. Here, we report 1.2–18.5 μm infrared (IR) spectrophotometric and polarimetric observations of comet Hale-Bopp. Our measurements of the spectral energy distribution (SED) and IR polarization near perhelion passage suggest that emission from the coma was dominated by scattering and thermal emission from sub-micron sized dust grains. Hale-Bopp's surprising brightness may have been largely a result of the properties of its coma grains rather than the size of its nucleus. The thermal emission continuum from the grains had a superheat of S = Tcolor/TBB ≥ 1.7, the peak of the 10 μm silicate emission feature was 1.7 mags above the carbon grain continuum, and the albedo (reflectivity) of the grains was ≥ 0.4 at a scattering angles, θ ≥ 135°
ISSN:0167-9295
1573-0794
DOI:10.1023/A:1006219215121