Title

Imaging Borrelly

Authors

Authors

L. A. Soderblom; D. C. Boice; D. T. Britt; R. H. Brown; B. J. Buratti; R. L. Kirk; M. Lee; R. M. Nelson; J. Oberst; B. R. Sandel; S. A. Stern; N. Thomas;R. V. Yelle

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Icarus

Keywords

comet; imaging; nucleus; topography; coma; dust jet; short-period; comets; 19P/Borrelly; Borrelly; deep space 1; rotation axis; rotation; pole; DEEP-SPACE-1 EXTENDED MISSION; PERIODIC COMET ENCKE; DEEP SPACE 1; OUTGASSING ASYMMETRY; INTEGRATED CAMERA; 253 MATHILDE; INNER COMA; DUST; JETS; NUCLEUS; PHOTOMETRY; Astronomy & Astrophysics

Abstract

The nucleus, coma, and dust jets of short-period Comet 19P/Borrelly were imaged from the Deep Space 1 spacecraft during its close flyby in September 2001. A prominent jet dominated the near-nucleus coma and emanated roughly normal to the long axis of nucleus from a broad central cavity. We show it to have remained fixed in position for more than 34 hr, much longer than the 26-hr rotation period. This confirms earlier suggestions that it is co-aligned with the rotation axis. From a combination of fitting the nucleus light curve from approach images and the nucleus' orientation from stereo images at encounter, we conclude that the sense of rotation is right-handed around the main jet vector. The inferred rotation pole is approximately perpendicular to the long axis of the nucleus, consistent with a simple rotational state. Lacking an existing IAU comet-specific convention but applying a convention provisionally adopted for asteroids, we label this the north pole. This places the sub-solar latitude at similar to 60degrees N at the time of the perihelion with the north pole in constant sunlight and thus receiving maximum average insolation. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Journal Title

Icarus

Volume

167

Issue/Number

1

Publication Date

1-1-2004

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

4

Last Page

15

WOS Identifier

WOS:000187956100002

ISSN

0019-1035

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