the main objective of the proposed research project is the search for distributed sources in cometary comae and the study of their physical and chemical properties. distinct evidence for the existance of such distributed sources for volatile material in comets has been found for comet halley in 1986, from which new concepts on cometary processes emerged. it is now widely believed that a significant portion of the volatiles in comets originate directly from grains that contain a certain amount of organic molecules. these organics as well as some of the most abundant gaseous parent molecules known in comets have no observable bands in the visible. their fundamental vibrational bands lie in regions in the near-ir where ground-based observations are either impossible or extremely difficult because of the atmospheric absorption. however, direct imaging of the inner coma of a comet with near-ir filters that reflect a substancial part of the parent molecules presently known to exist is imperative to distinguish between species originating exclusively at the nucleus and species that are at least partially produced from grains. at present almost nothing is known about the possible ejection mechanism of volatiles from grains. observational data are therefore urgently needed to determine the basic properties of distributed sources like their extension and their main compounds. the data that are proposed to be collected here would provide two-dimensional spatial profiles of the species most r^ant to the problem from which their production/destruction mechanisms can be modeled.
Instrument
CAM01
Temporal Coverage
1996-12-09T01:55:24Z/1996-12-12T16:52:48Z
Version
1.0
Mission Description
The Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) was the worlds first true orbiting infrared observatory. Equipped with four highly-sophisticated and versatile scientific instruments, it was launched by Ariane in November 1995 and provided astronomers world-wide with a facility of unprecedented sensitivity and capabilities for a detailed exploration of the Universe at infrared wavelengths.
European Space Agency, SCHULZ et al., 1998, 'DISTRIBUTED SOURCES IN COMETARY COMAE COLUMN DENSITY PROFILES OF PARENT POTENTIAL PARENT MOLECULES', 1.0, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-v72s3wr
