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Photometry of cometary nuclei: Rotation rates, colours and a comparison with kuiper belt objects

Snodgrass, C., Lowry, S.C., Fitzsimmons, A. (2006) Photometry of cometary nuclei: Rotation rates, colours and a comparison with kuiper belt objects. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 373 (4). pp. 1590-1602. ISSN 0035-8711. E-ISSN 1365-2966. (doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.11121.x) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:52311)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.11121.x

Abstract

We present time-series data on Jupiter Family Comets (JFCs) 17P/Holmes, 47P/Ashbrook-Jackson and 137P/Shoemaker-Levy 2. In addition we also present results from 'snap-shot' observations of comets 43P/Wolf-Harrington, 44P/Reinmuth 2, 103P/Hartley 2 and 104P/Kowal 2 taken during the same run. The comets were at heliocentric distances of between 3 and 7 au at this time. We present measurements of size and activity levels for the snap-shot targets. The time-series data allow us to constrain rotation periods and shapes, and thus bulk densities. We also measure colour indices (V - R) and (R - I) and reliable radii for these comets. We compare all of our findings to date with similar results for other comets and Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs). We find that the rotational properties of nuclei and KBOs are very similar, that there is evidence for a cut-off in bulk densities at ~0.6 g cm^3 in both populations, and the colours of the two populations show similar correlations. For JFCs, there is no observational evidence for the optical colours being dependent on either position in the orbit or orbital parameters. © 2006 RAS.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.11121.x
Additional information: Unmapped bibliographic data: LA - English [Field not mapped to EPrints] J2 - Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. [Field not mapped to EPrints] AD - Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Physics and Astronomy, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT7 INN, United Kingdom [Field not mapped to EPrints] AD - European Southern Observatory, Casilla 19001, Santiago 19, Chile [Field not mapped to EPrints] DB - Scopus [Field not mapped to EPrints]
Uncontrolled keywords: Comets: general, Comets: individual: 137P/Shoemaker-Levy 2, Comets: individual: 17P/Holmes, Comets: individual: 47P/Ashbrook-Jackson, Kuiper belt, Techniques: photometric
Subjects: Q Science > QB Astronomy
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Natural Sciences > Physics and Astronomy
Depositing User: Stephen Lowry
Date Deposited: 08 Dec 2015 23:10 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:21 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/52311 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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