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Parent Volatile Composition of Jupiter Family Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák as Measured with Keck NIRSPEC

Presentation #101.04 in the session Cometary Volatiles.

Published onOct 20, 2022
Parent Volatile Composition of Jupiter Family Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák as Measured with Keck NIRSPEC

As some of the oldest and best-preserved remnants from the formation of the Solar System, comets, and in particular their volatile compositions, can provide unique insights into the physics and chemistry operating in the protoplanetary disk mid-plane during planet formation. However, many of the comets observed to-date with infrared spectroscopic techniques sensitive to volatile emissions tend to be Nearly Isotropic Comets (NICs) that are thought to originate from the Oort Cloud, whereas the less-active Jupiter-family comets (JFCs) thought to originate from the scattered disc are underrepresented in the current taxonomy. In 2017, a unique opportunity to study several JFCs presented itself, one such comet being 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák. We present initial results from infrared spectroscopy of JFC 41P. The data were obtained with the NIRSPEC instrument on Keck II on UT March 16 and March 17, 2017, at a geocentric distance of 0.16 AU and a heliocentric distance of 1.11 AU. We present production rates (mol/s) and volatile abundances for HCN, NH3, C2H6, C2H2, H2CO, and CH3OH compared with H2O in (%) and relative to previous near-IR studies of other comets to date. Preliminary results suggest that the abundances of C2H2 and HCN in 41P are similar to their current mean values in the (still small) sample of previously observed JFCs, whereas the C2H6 abundance is similar to that of NICs but enriched compared to other JFCs. H2CO appears to be heavily depleted in comet 41P.

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