Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Morrison, Nancy D.
• Knauth, David C.
• Mulliss, Christopher L.
• Lee, Wei

Titel

High-Resolution Optical Spectra of the Head of Comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake)

Ist Teil von

• Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 1997-06, Vol.109 (736), p.676-681

Ort / Verlag

American Institute of Physics

Erscheinungsjahr

1997

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• On 1996 March 23 and 27, we obtained high-resolution (R ≃ 26,000) échelle spectra by manually guiding on the head of Comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake). The two spectra cover different but slightly overlapping sets of nine disjoint 70 Å regions of the green, yellow, and red. The continuum signal-to-noise ratio is in the range 40-100 per spectral resolution element. We used line lists from the standard astronomical literature to identify lines of [O I], Na I, C₂, NH₂, CN, and H₂O⁺, we unsuccessfully sought evidence for CO⁺, and we obtained upper limits on HCO line strengths. In addition, we used laboratory data to make new identifications, by wavelength coincidence only, of lines of NH₂. For the lines that remain unidentified, we have listed measured wavelengths and relative fluxes, in order to aid future efforts at identification. Our spectra include the green and one of the red lines of [O i], and the indicated photon flux ratio of λ5577 / (λ6300 + λ6364) is in the range 0.12-0.16, consistent with formation of the excited atoms from photodissociation of H₂O.