| Description |
in this proposal, more time is being requested for our winning go proposal for the original iso call for proposals, perbrco.clisse. as shown in our original proposal, there is a critical need for thermal infrared mapping and photometric observations of the extended dust tails of bright comets by orbiting cryogenic infrared telescopes. using time granted for our original proposal, we will observe comet p/iras in october 1996. with this proposal for the supplemental call, we will extend our scientific investigation to a second comet, chosen to be the target of either the upcoming nasa stardust mission to collect cometary dust, or the target of the upcoming esa rosetta mission to rendezvous and land on a comet. the results of our observations will be used to derive the amount of dust emitted by the comet vs time and heliocentric distance, of vital interest in maximizing the scientific return and minimizing the spacecraft hazards during the flyby/rendezvous. we also propose to extend our investigation to explore possible new cometary spectroscopic features, such as those related to x-ray emission from comets and dust emission features found in proto- planetary systems. as for comet p/iras observed in october 1996, we will compare the iso imaging and spectral data to simultaneous data obtained by the lowell optical and nasa /irtf infrared ground based telescopes, as well as archival data obtained by iras, cobe/dirbe, hst, and for relationships by cometary age, orbit, color temperature, silicate feature, and trail formation. we will also request simul- taneous rosat and asca observations, to look for correlations between infrared and x-ray cometary emission. the objects to be observed are any any of the following periodic comets listed for spring launch in our first proposal (in order of preference): p/wild2, p/wirtannen, p/haneda-campos, p/wolf-harrington, p/taylor, p/hartley 2, p/temple -tuttle, p/wild2, p/gunn, any bright dynamically new comet with appropriate orbital geometry. |
