Issue |
A&A
Volume 531, July 2011
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A11 | |
Number of page(s) | 4 | |
Section | Planets and planetary systems | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201116793 | |
Published online | 31 May 2011 |
Research Note
Frozen to death? Detection of comet Hale-Bopp at 30.7 AU
1
Konkoly Observatory, Konkoly-Thege Miklós út 15-17, 1121 Budapest, Hungary
e-mail: szgy@konkoly.hu
2 Eötvös Fellow at the Astronomy Dept., University of Texas at Austin, 78712 TX, USA
3
Dept. of Exp. Physics & Astronomical Observatory, University of Szeged, 6720 Szeged, Hungary
4 Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Received: 27 February 2011
Accepted: 21 April 2011
Context. Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) has been the most interesting comet ever encountered by modern astronomy, which continued to display significant activity at a solar distance of 25.7 AU. It is unclear when and how this activity will finally cease.
Aims. We present new observations with the ESO 2.2 m telescope at La Silla to monitor the activity of Hale-Bopp at 30.7 AU solar distance.
Methods. On 2010-12-04, 26 CCD images were taken with 180 s exposure times for photometry and morphology.
Results. The comet was detected in R and had a total brightness of 23ṃ3 ± 0ṃ2, which corresponds to an absolute brightness of R(1,1,0) = 8ṃ3. The profile of the coma was star-like at a seeing of 19, without any evidence of a coma or tail extending farther than 2
5 (=55 000 km in projection) and exceeding 26.5 mag/arcs2 surface brightness. The measured total brightness corresponds to a relative total reflecting surface, aRC, of 485 km2, nine times less than three years before. The calculated aRC value would imply a nucleus with 60−65 km radius assuming 4% albedo. This size estimate contradicts significantly the previous results scattering around 35 km.
Conclusions. We propose that the comet may still be in a low level of activity, despite the lack of a prominent coma. Alternatively, if the nucleus is already dormant, the albedo should be as high as 13%, assuming a radius of 35 km. With this observation, Hale-Bopp has become the most distant comet ever observed, far beyond the orbit of Neptune.
Key words: comets: individual: Hale-Bopp / techniques: photometric
© ESO, 2011
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