Comet C/2017 E4 composition with iSHELL at NASA/IRTF

DOI

In 2017 April, we acquired comprehensive high-resolution spectra of newly discovered comet C/2017 E4 (Lovejoy) as it approached perihelion, and before its disintegration. We detected many cometary emission lines in the range (2.8-5.3) {mu}m, in four customized instrument settings (L1-c, L3, Lp1-c, and M1) of iSHELL - the new near-IR high-resolution immersion echelle spectrograph at NASA/IRTF (Maunakea, Hawaii). We identified 12 molecular species: nine primary volatiles (H_2_O, HCN, NH_3_, CO, C_2_H_2_, C_2_H_6_, CH_4_, CH_3_OH, H_2_CO) and three product species (CN, NH_2_, OH). We detected 85 H_2_O emission lines from 12 water vibrational bands across L1-c and M1 settings. The many detected water emission lines enabled retrieval of accurate measures for ortho- and para-H_2_O independently, thereby reducing systematic uncertainty in the derived ortho-para ratio and nuclear spin temperature. Excitation analyses and emission profile analyses were performed for all species, and molecular abundance ratios relative to water are compared with values found for other Oort Cloud comets in our infrared database. Abundance ratios are consistent for most species, with the exception of underabundant methanol and overabundant ammonia in E4.

Identifier
DOI http://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier.51560068
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/156/68
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/AJ/156/68
Related Identifier http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/AJ/156/68
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/156/68
Provenance
Creator Faggi S.; Villanueva G.L.; Mumma M.J.; Paganini L.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2019
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysics and Astronomy; Interdisciplinary Astronomy; Natural Sciences; Observational Astronomy; Physics; Solar System Astronomy