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arXiv 1001.4161astro-ph.EP
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斯皮策望远镜Space Telescope揭示的17 P/霍姆斯彗星爆炸

Explosion of Comet 17P/Holmes as revealed by the Spitzer Space Telescope

William T. Reach, Jeremie Vaubaillon, Carey M. Lisse, Mikel Holloway, Jeonghee Rho

摘要:

17 P/霍姆斯彗星于2007年10月23日发生爆炸,将各种大小的微粒碎片投射到行星际介质中。我们在2007年11月10日和2008年2月27日使用斯皮策摄谱仪观测了彗星,并在2008年3月13日使用光度计观测了彗星。新鲜喷出物具有来自小结晶硅酸盐颗粒的详细矿物学特征。2008年2月27日的光谱,以及2007年11月10日光谱图的中心核心,揭示了几乎没有特征的光谱,这是由于更大的颗粒从核中喷射出来的速度更慢。我们将红外图像分解为三个分量(大小,速度),这也解释了毫米波通量的时间演化。光学图像是在2007年10月27日至2008年3月10日的多个日期在霍洛威彗星天文台和帕洛玛天文台的1.5米望远镜获得的。喷出物壳和喷出物团的前缘相对于核的方向不会随着太阳方向的改变而改变;相反,这种配置是由初始爆炸的方向所决定的。喷出物的动能大于原子核的引力结合能。我们的模型爆炸是由于结晶和释放的挥发物从内部无定形冰在一个地下腔;一旦腔中的压力超过表面强度,腔上方的材料被从彗星。空洞的大小和核心上层的抗拉强度受到所观察到的喷出物特性的限制;大于10米尺度的抗拉强度必须大于10千帕。2007年爆发的外观与1892年的爆发相似,但1892年的爆发能量减少了约20倍。

英文摘要:

An explosion on comet 17P/Holmes occurred on 2007 Oct 23, projecting particulate debris of a wide range of sizes into the interplanetary medium. We observed the comet using the Spitzer spectrograph on 2007 Nov 10 and 2008 Feb 27, and the photometer, on 2008 Mar 13. The fresh ejecta have detailed mineralogical features from small crystalline silicate grains. The 2008 Feb 27 spectra, and the central core of the 2007 Nov 10 spectral map, reveal nearly featureless spectra, due to much larger grains that were ejected from the nucleus more slowly. We break the infrared image into three components (size, speed) that also explain the temporal evolution of the mm-wave flux. Optical images were obtained on multiple dates spanning 2007 Oct 27 to 2008 Mar 10 at the Holloway Comet Observatory and 1.5-m telescope at Palomar Observatory. The orientation of the leading edge of the ejecta shell and the ejecta blob, relative to the nucleus, do not change as the orientation of the Sun changes; instead, the configuration was imprinted by the orientation of the initial explosion. The kinetic energy of the ejecta >1e21 erg is greater than the gravitational binding energy of the nucleus. We model the explosion as being due to crystallization and release of volatiles from interior amorphous ice within a subsurface cavity; once the pressure in the cavity exceeded the surface strength, the material above the cavity was propelled from the comet. The size of the cavity and the tensile strength of the upper layer of the nucleus are constrained by the observed properties of the ejecta; tensile strengths on >10 m scale must be greater than 10 kPa. The appearance of the 2007 outburst is similar to that witnessed in 1892, but the 1892 explosion was less energetic by a factor of about 20.

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