AbstractIn this paper we analyze SOHO/UVCS data of the sungrazing comet C/2001 C2, a member of the Kreutz family, that was observed on February 7, 2001, at the heliocentric distances of 4.98 and 3.60 solar radii. This comet splits in a main nucleus and a fragment which have been identified in UV data. A study of the cometary Hydrogen Lyα emission from these two objects revealed that the Lyα signal from the fragment decays exponentially with time, while the signal from the main object consists of an exponentially decaying term superposed onto a constant background. The latter emission has been ascribed to the sublimation of pyroxene dust grains, whose end products neutralize coronal protons via charge exchange processes. This interpretation allowed us to estimate, for the first time, the number density of pyroxene dust grains in a sungrazing comet.
Evidence for pyroxene dust grains in C/2001 C2 sungrazing comet
Advances in Space Research ; 38 , 9 ; 1972-1975
2005-10-05
4 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
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