Publication Date:
2002-04-06
Description:
The nucleus of the Jupiter-family comet 19P/Borrelly was closely observed by the Miniature Integrated Camera and Spectrometer aboard the Deep Space 1 spacecraft on 22 September 2001. The 8-kilometer-long body is highly variegated on a scale of 200 meters, exhibiting large albedo variations (0.01 to 0.03) and complex geologic relationships. Short-wavelength infrared spectra (1.3 to 2.6 micrometers) show a slope toward the red and a hot, dry surface (〈/=345 kelvin, with no trace of water ice or hydrated minerals), consistent with approximately 10% or less of the surface actively sublimating. Borrelly's coma exhibits two types of dust features: fans and highly collimated jets. At encounter, the near-nucleus coma was dominated by a prominent dust jet that resolved into at least three smaller jets emanating from a broad basin in the middle of the nucleus. Because the major dust jet remained fixed in orientation, it is evidently aligned near the rotation axis of the nucleus.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Soderblom, L A -- Becker, T L -- Bennett, G -- Boice, D C -- Britt, D T -- Brown, R H -- Buratti, B J -- Isbell, C -- Giese, B -- Hare, T -- Hicks, M D -- Howington-Kraus, E -- Kirk, R L -- Lee, M -- Nelson, R M -- Oberst, J -- Owen, T C -- Rayman, M D -- Sandel, B R -- Stern, S A -- Thomas, N -- Yelle, R V -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2002 May 10;296(5570):1087-91. Epub 2002 Apr 4.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉United States Geological Survey, 2255 North Gemini Drive, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, USA. lsoderblom@usgs.gov〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11934989" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Carbon/analysis
;
Cosmic Dust
;
Hydrocarbons/analysis
;
*Meteoroids
;
Spectrum Analysis
;
Temperature
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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