Near-infrared profiles of Comet Halley

Phillips, J. P.; Mampaso, A.; Garzon, F.
Referencia bibliográfica

Astronomy and Astrophysics (ISSN 0004-6361), vol. 161, no. 2, June 1986, p. L17-L19.

Fecha de publicación:
6
1986
Número de autores
3
Número de autores del IAC
2
Número de citas
1
Número de citas referidas
1
Descripción
The J, H, K, and L profiles of Comet Halley taken on January 15, 1986 using the liquid nitrogen cooled InSb detector mounted on the 1.5-m Tenerife Infrared Flux Collector, are discussed. The J and H emission is shown to be strongly dominated by grain scattering of the solar continuum, while grain thermal emission is strong at K and becomes increasingly dominant towards longer wavelengths. The mean temperature of the grains is determined to be about 730 K for uniform emissivity, and the grain emission optical depth is found to be about 0.000087 for an albedo of 0.3 within a 16-arcsec aperture centered on the nucleus, declining to about 8.7 x 10 to the -6th for an aperture 12.5 times greater. Both emission and scatter profiles are seen to be dominated by a central core with significantly different properties from the rest of the coma, and with FWHM of about 20 arcsec. The more strongly extended coma emission is found most strongly at J.