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Catastrophic Disruption of Comet ISONWe report submillimeter 450 and 850 microns dust continuum observations for comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) obtained at heliocentric distances 0.31-0.08 au prior to perihelion on 2013 November 28 (rh=0.0125 au). These observations reveal a rapidly varying dust environment in which the dust emission was initially point-like. As ISON approached perihelion, the continuum emission became an elongated dust column spread out over as much as 60″ (greater than 10(exp 5) km in the anti-solar direction. Deconvolution of the November 28.04 850 microns image reveals numerous distinct clumps consistent with the catastrophic disruption of comet ISON, producing approximately 5.2×10(exp 10) kg of submillimeter-sized dust. Orbital computations suggest that the SCUBA-2 emission peak coincides with the cometʼs residual nucleus.
Document ID
20170000988
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Keane, Jacqueline V.
(Hawaii Univ. Honolulu, HI, United States)
Milam, Stefanie N.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Coulson, Iain M.
(Joint Astronomy Center Hilo, HI, United States)
Kleyna, Jan T.
(Hawaii Univ. Honolulu, HI, United States)
Sekanina, Zdenek
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Kracht, Rainer
(Oslandring Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)
Riesen, Timm-Emmanuel
(Hawaii Univ. Honolulu, HI, United States)
Meech, Karen J.
(Hawaii Univ. Honolulu, HI, United States)
Charnley, Steven B.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
January 31, 2017
Publication Date
November 9, 2016
Publication Information
Publication: The Astrophysical Journal
Publisher: The American Astronomical Society
Volume: 831
Issue: 2
e-ISSN: 1538-4357
Subject Category
Astronomy
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN38986
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NSF AST-1413736
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNA08DA77A
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
comets: individual
comets: general
Comets

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