This proposal serves to obtain the first direct outgassing measurement of H2O from a confirmed to be active newly discovered Main Belt Comet using the HIFI instrument of Herschel.
Publication
Determination of an Upper Limit for the Water Outgassing Rate of Main-belt Comet P-2012 T1 (PANSTARRS) . O'Rourke L. et al. . The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 774, Issue 1, article id. L13, 4 pp. (2013). . 774 . 10.1088/2041-8205/774/1/L13 . 2013ApJ...774L..13O ,
Instrument
HIFI_HifiPoint_fs
Temporal Coverage
2013-01-16T07:21:22Z/2013-01-16T12:27:47Z
Version
SPG v14.1.0
Mission Description
Herschel was launched on 14 May 2009! It is the fourth 'cornerstone' mission in the ESA science programme. With a 3.5 m Cassegrain telescope it is the largest space telescope ever launched. It is performing photometry and spectroscopy in approximately the 55-671 µm range, bridging the gap between earlier infrared space missions and groundbased facilities.