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
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.