Issue |
A&A
Volume 648, April 2021
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A49 | |
Number of page(s) | 34 | |
Section | Planets and planetary systems | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202040125 | |
Published online | 09 April 2021 |
Molecular composition of comet 46P/Wirtanen from millimetre-wave spectroscopy★,★★
1
LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Université de Paris,
5 place Jules Janssen,
92195
Meudon,
France
e-mail: nicolas.biver@obspm.fr
2
IRAM, 300 rue de la Piscine,
38406
Saint Martin d’Hères,
France
3
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology,
4800 Oak Grove Drive,
Pasadena,
CA
91109,
USA
4
Solar System Exploration Division,
Astrochemistry Laboratory Code 691, NASA-GSFC,
Greenbelt,
MD 20771,
USA
5
Department of Physics, Catholic University of America,
Washington,
DC 20064,
USA
6
Department of Physics, American University,
Washington,
DC,
USA
7
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory,
11100 Johns Hopkins Rd.,
Laurel,
MD 20723,
USA
8
Solar System Exploration Division,
Planetary System Laboratory Code 693, NASA-GSFC,
Greenbelt,
MD 20771,
USA
Received:
14
December
2020
Accepted:
10
February
2021
We present the results of a molecular survey of comet 46P/Wirtanen undertaken with the IRAM 30-m and NOEMA radio telescopes in December 2018. Observations at IRAM 30-m during the 12–18 December period comprise a 2 mm spectral survey covering 25 GHz and a 1 mm survey covering 62 GHz. The gas outflow velocity and kinetic temperature have been accurately constrained by the observations. We derive abundances of 11 molecules, some being identified remotely for the first time in a Jupiter-family comet, including complex organic molecules such as formamide, ethylene glycol, acetaldehyde, or ethanol. Sensitive upper limits on the abundances of 24 other molecules are obtained. The comet is found to be relatively rich in methanol (3.4% relative to water), but relatively depleted in CO, CS, HNC, HNCO, and HCOOH.
Key words: comets: general / comets: individual: 46P/Wirtanen / radio lines: planetary systems / submillimeter: planetary systems
The radio spectra are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/648/A49
© N. Biver et al. 2021
Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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