Afghan, Qasim;
Jones, Geraint H;
Price, Oliver;
Coates, Andrew;
(2022)
Observations of a dust tail gap in comet C/2014 Q1 (PanSTARRS).
Icarus
, Article 115286. 10.1016/j.icarus.2022.115286.
(In press).
Preview |
Text
Afghan_Observations of a dust tail gap in comet_Pre-proof.pdf - Accepted Version Download (3MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Cometary dust tails display a wide array of structures, most believed to be caused by a variable dust production, size distributions, fragmentation processes, and interactions with the solar wind, e.g. Price et al. (2019). However, not all these structures are fully understood. Here we report the discovery of a curious new dust tail feature, first noted in long period comet C/2014 Q1 (PanSTARRS) (Bolin et al., 2014), where a section of the dust tail was clearly missing. This implies that the comet underwent a dramatic temporary decrease in dust production near perihelion. The gap appeared on 2015 July 14, 8 days after perihelion at 0.318 au, and progressed along the tail, following the expected motion of the dust that should have been present. The gap corresponds to dust ejected between July 5 and July 12, and of 0.01. Possible explanations for this gap are proposed.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Observations of a dust tail gap in comet C/2014 Q1 (PanSTARRS) |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.icarus.2022.115286 |
| Publisher version: | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third-party material in this article are included in the Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | Comets, Comet dust, Comet tails, Comet activity |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Space and Climate Physics UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10157214 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
