| Issue |
A&A
Volume 574, February 2015
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | L3 | |
| Number of page(s) | 5 | |
| Section | Letters | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201425127 | |
| Published online | 21 January 2015 | |
Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) as seen with the Herschel Space Observatory⋆,⋆⋆
1
Konkoly Observatory, MTA Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth
Sciences,
Konkoly Thege 15-17,
1121
Budapest,
Hungary
e-mail:
kiss.csaba@csfk.mta.hu
2
Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik,
Postfach 1312,
Giessenbachstr., 85741
Garching,
Germany
3
Herschel Science Centre, ESAC, European Space Agency, 28691
Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain
4
STAR, Stockholm Amateur Astronomers, Drottninggatan 120,
11360
Stockholm,
Sweden
Received: 8 October 2014
Accepted: 23 December 2014
The thermal emission of comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) was observed on March 31, 2013, at a heliocentric distance of 6.48 au using the PACS photometer camera of the Herschel Space Observatory. The comet was clearly active, showing a coma that could be traced to a distance of ~10′′, i.e. ~50 000 km. Analysis of the radial intensity profiles of the coma provided a dust mass and dust production rate and the derived grain size distribution characteristics indicate an overabundance of large grains in the thermal emission. We estimate that activity started about 6 months before these observations at a heliocentric distance of ~8 au.
Key words: techniques: photometric / comets: individual: C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) / comets: general
Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-lead Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.
Appendix A is available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org
© ESO, 2015
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