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Published July 2010 | Published
Journal Article Open

HIFI observations of water in the atmosphere of comet C/2008 Q3 (Garradd)

Abstract

High-resolution far-infrared and sub-millimetre spectroscopy of water lines is an important tool to understand the physical and chemical properties of cometary atmospheres.We present observations of several rotational ortho- and para-water transitions in comet C/2008 Q3 (Garradd) performed with HIFI on Herschel. These observations have provided the first detection of the 2_(12)−1_(01) (1669 GHz) ortho and 1_(11)−0_(00) (1113 GHz) para transitions of water in a cometary spectrum. In addition, the ground-state transition 1_(10)−1_(01) at 557 GHz is detected and mapped. By detecting several water lines quasi-simultaneously and mapping their emission we can constrain the excitation parameters in the coma. Synthetic line profiles are computed using excitation models which include excitation by collisions, solar infrared radiation, and radiation trapping. We obtain the gas kinetic temperature, constrain the electron density profile, and estimate the coma expansion velocity by analyzing the map and line shapes. We derive water production rates of 1.7−2.8 × 10^(28) s^(−1) over the range r_h = 1.83−1.85 AU.

Additional Information

© 2010 ESO. Received 31 March 2010, Accepted 13 May 2010, Published online 16 July 2010. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA. Figure 5 is only available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org. HIFI has been designed and built by a consortium of institutes and university departments from across Europe, Canada and the United States under the leadership of SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Groningen, The Netherlands and with major contributions from Germany, France and the US. Consortium members are: Canada: CSA, U.Waterloo; France: CESR, LAB, LERMA, IRAM; Germany: KOSMA, MPIfR, MPS; Ireland, NUI Maynooth; Italy: ASI, IFSI-INAF, Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri-INAF; Netherlands: SRON, TUD; Poland: CAMK, CBK; Spain: Observatorio Astronómico Nacional (IGN), Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA). Sweden: Chalmers University of Technology – MC2, RSS & GARD; Onsala Space Observatory; Swedish National Space Board, Stockholm University – Stockholm Observatory; Switzerland: ETH Zurich, FHNW; USA: Caltech, JPL, NHSC. HIPE is a joint development by the Herschel Science Ground Segment Consortium, consisting of ESA, the NASA Herschel Science Center, and the HIFI, PACS and SPIRE consortia. This development has been supported by national funding agencies: CEA, CNES, CNRS (France); ASI (Italy); DLR (Germany). Additional funding support for some instrument activities has been provided by ESA. Support for this work was provided by NASA through an award issued by JPL/Caltech. L.D. acknowledges financial support from the Fund for Scientific Research – Flanders (FWO). J.B., L.D., B.V., C.W. acknowledge support from the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office via the PRODEX Programme of ESA. D.C.L. is supported by the NSF, award AST- 0540882 to the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory. S.S. and M.B. are supported by the Polish Ministry of Education and Science (MNiSW). L.M.L. thanks the Spanish MICIT through the project AyA 2009-08011-E.

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