Context.
The number of satellites in low-Earth orbit is increasing rapidly and many tens of thousands of satellites are expected to be launched in the coming years. There is a strong concern among ...the astronomical community about the contamination of optical and near-infrared observations by satellite trails, what has led to several initial investigations of the impact of large satellite constellations.
Aims.
We expand the impact analysis of such constellations on ground-based optical and near-infrared astronomical observations in a more rigorous and quantitative way, using updated constellation information and considering imagers and spectrographs and their very different characteristics.
Methods.
We introduce an analytical method that allows us to rapidly and accurately evaluate the effect of a very large number of satellites, accounting for their magnitudes and the effect of trailing of the satellite image during the exposure. We use this to evaluate the impact on a series of representative instruments, including imagers (traditional narrow field instruments, wide-field survey cameras, and astro-photographic cameras) and spectrographs (long-slit and fibre-fed), taking their limiting magnitude into account.
Results.
Confirming earlier findings, the effect of satellite trails is more damaging for high-altitude satellites, on wide-field instruments, or essentially during the first and last hours of the night. Thanks to their brighter limiting magnitudes, low- and mid-resolution spectrographs will be less affected, but the contamination will be at about the same level as that of the science signal, introducing additional challenges. High-resolution spectrographs will essentially be immune. We propose a series of mitigating measures, including one that uses the described simulation method to optimise the scheduling of the observations. We conclude that no single mitigation measure will solve the problem of satellite trails for all instruments and all science cases.
Aims.
2I/Borisov (hereafter 2I) is the first visibly active interstellar comet observed in the Solar System, allowing us for the first time to sample the composition of a building block from another ...system. We report on the monitoring of 2I with the Ultraviolet-Visual Echelle Spectrograph, the high-resolution optical spectrograph of the ESO Very Large Telescope at Paranal, for four months from November 15, 2019 to March 16, 2020. Our goal is to characterise the activity and composition of 2I with respect to Solar System comets.
Methods.
We collected high-resolution spectra at 12 different epochs from 2.1 au pre-perihelion to 2.6 au post-perihelion.
Results.
On December 24 and 26, 2019, close to perihelion, we detected several OH lines of the 309 nm (0–0) band and derived a water production rate of 2.2 ± 0.2 × 10
26
molecules s
−1
. The three OI forbidden oxygen lines were detected at different epochs and we derived a green-to-red doublet intensity ratio (G/R) of 0.31 ± 0.05 close to perihelion. The NH
2
ortho and para lines from various bands were measured and allowed us to derive an ortho-to-para abundance ratio (OPR) of 3.21 ± 0.15, corresponding to an OPR and spin temperature of ammonia of 1.11 ± 0.08 and 31
−5
+10
K, respectively. These values are consistent with the values usually measured for Solar System comets. Emission lines of the radicals NH (336 nm), CN (388 nm), CH (431 nm), and C
2
(517 nm) were also detected. Several FeI and NiI lines were identified and their intensities were measured to provide a ratio of log (NiI/FeI) = 0.21 ± 0.18, which is in agreement with the value recently found in Solar System comets.
Conclusions.
Our high spectral resolution observations of 2I/Borisov and the associated measurements of the NH
2
OPR and the Ni/Fe abundance ratio are remarkably similar to Solar System comets. Only the G/R ratio is unusually high, but it is consistent with the high abundance ratio of CO/H
2
O found by other investigators.
Context. Dynamically, 133P/Elst-Pizarro and 176P/LINEAR are main belt asteroids, likely members of the Themis collisional family, and unlikely of cometary origin. They have been observed with ...cometary-like tails, which may be produced by water-ice sublimation. They are part of a small group of objects called Main Belt Comets (MBCs, Hsieh & Jewitt 2006). Aims. We attempt to determine if these MBCs have spectral properties compatible with those of comet nuclei or with other Themis family asteroids. Methods. We present the visible spectrum of MBCs 133P and 176P, as well as three Themis family asteroids: (62) Erato, (379) Huenna and (383) Janina, obtained in 2007 using three telescopes at “El Roque de los Muchachos” Observatory, in La Palma, Spain, and the 8 m Kueyen (UT2) VLT telescope at Cerro Paranal, Chile. The spectra of the MBCs are compared with those of the Themis family asteroids, comets, likely “dormant” comets and asteroids with past cometary-like activity in the near-Earth (NEA) population. As 133P was observed active, we also look for the prominent CN emission around 0.38 μm typically observed in comets, to test if the activity is produced by the sublimation of volatiles. Results. The spectra of 133P and 176P resemble best those of B-type asteroid and are very similar to those of Themis family members and another activated asteroid in the near-Earth asteroid population, (3200) Phaethon. On the other hand, these spectra are significantly different from the spectrum of comet 162P/Siding-Spring and most of the observed cometary nuclei. CN gas emission is not detected in the spectrum of 133P. We determine an upper limit for the CN production rate Q(CN) = 1.3 × 1021 mol/s, three orders of magnitude lower than the Q(CN) of Jupiter family comets observed at similar heliocentric distances. Conclusions. The spectra of 133P/Elst-Pizarro and 176P/LINEAR confirm that they are likely members of the Themis family of asteroids, fragments that probably retained volatiles, and unlikely have a cometary origin in the trans-Neptunian belt or the Oort Cloud. They have similar surface properties to activated asteroids in the NEA population, which supports the hypothesis that these NEAs are scattered MBCs. The low Q(CN) of 133P means that, if water-ice sublimation is the activation mechanism, the gas production rate is very low and/or the parent molecules of CN present in the nuclei of normal comets are much less abundant in this MBC.
We present observational data for two long-period and three dynamically new comets observed at heliocentric distances between 5.8 to 14.0 AU. All of the comets exhibited activity beyond the distance ...at which water ice sublimation can be significant. We have conducted experiments on gas-laden amorphous ice samples and show that considerable gas emission occurs when the ice is heated below the temperature of the amorphous–crystalline ice phase transition (
T
∼
137
K
). We propose that annealing of amorphous water ice is the driver of activity in comets as they first enter the inner Solar System. Experimental data show that large grains can be ejected at low velocity during annealing and that the rate of brightening of the comet should decrease as the heliocentric distance decreases. These results are consistent with both historical observations of distant comet activity and with the data presented here. If observations of the onset of activity in a dynamically new comet are ever made, the distance at which this occurs would be a sensitive indicator of the temperature at which the comet had formed or represents the maximum temperature that it has experienced. New surveys such as Pan STARRS, may be able to detect these comets while they are still inactive.
The Wide Field Camera (WFC) on the Hubble Space Telescope and the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrograph (LRIS) on the Keck II telescope have been used to image 21 distant dynamically new, long-period ...(LP) and short-period (SP) Jupiter-family (JF) comet nuclei (near aphelion), as part of a long-term program to search for physical differences between short-period comets and Oort cloud comets. WFC data were obtained on Comets C/1987 H1 (Shoemaker) and C/1984 K1 (Shoemaker) during Cycle 5 (1995 December) and on C/1988 B1 (Shoemaker), C/1987 F1 (Torres), and C/1983 O1 (Černis) during Cycle 6 (1997 April, May, and June). The HST comets were at heliocentric distances 20.4 <
rAU < 29.5. Each comet observation was allocated 7 orbits, for ≈3.6 hrs of integration. The most difficult part of the image reduction was the removal of cosmic rays. We present our scheme for cosmic ray removal. None of the HST comet nuclei was detected to the 3-
σ level at
m
R
∼27. The inferred upper limits to the nucleus radii are
4.0<R
N
km<10.5
. The SP comets range in radius between
0.34<R
N
km<15.4
, with a median value of
R
N
∼1.61 km. The LP comets ranged in size between <4.0–56 km. Over a range of radii between 1–10 km, the nuclei can be fit with a cumulative distribution
N(>
R
N
)∝
R
N
−
α
with
α=1.45±0.05, and for nuclei in the range 2–5 km,
α=1.91±0.06. Statistical analysis and modeling shows that the slopes of the observed TNO and JF comet distributions are not compatible, suggesting that the intrinsic distribution of JF comet nuclei is a differential
a
−3.5 power law truncated at small nucleus radii between 0.3 and 2.0 km.
Context. Ragozzine & Brown presented a list of candidate members of the first collisional family to be found among the trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), the one associated with (136108) Haumea (2003 ...EL61). Aims. We aim to identify which of the candidate members of the Haumea collisional family are true members, by searching for water ice on their surfaces. We also attempt to test the theory that the family members are made of almost pure water ice by using optical light-curves to constrain their densities. Methods. We use optical and near-infrared photometry to identify water ice, in particular using the $(J - H_S)$ colour as a sensitive measure of the absorption feature at $1.6~\mu {\rm m}$. We use the ${\rm CH}_4$ filter of the new Hawk-I instrument at the VLT as a short H-band (HS) for this as it is more sensitive to the water ice feature than the usual H filter. Results. We report colours for 22 candidate family members, including NIR colours for 15. We confirm that 2003 SQ317 and 2005 CB79 are family members, bringing the total number of confirmed family members to 10. We reject 8 candidates as having no water ice absorption based on our Hawk-I measurements, and 5 more based on their optical colours. The combination of the large proportion of rejected candidates and time lost to weather prevent us from putting strong constraints on the density of the family members based on the light-curves obtained so far; we can still say that none of the family members (except Haumea) require a large density to explain their light-curve.
The discovery of afterglows associated with γ-ray bursts at X-ray, optical and radio wavelengths and
the measurement of the redshifts of some of these events, has established that γ-ray bursts lie at ...extreme distances,
making them the most powerful photon-emitters known in the Universe. Here
we report the discovery of transient optical emission in the error box of
the γ-ray burst GRB980425, the light curve of which was very different
from that of previous optical afterglows associated with γ-ray bursts.
The optical transient is located in a spiral arm of the galaxy ESO184-G82,
which has a redshift velocity of only 2,550 km s−1
(ref. 6). Its optical spectrum and location
indicate that it is a very luminous supernova, which has been
identified as SN1998bw. If this supernova and GRB980425 are indeed associated,
the energy radiated in γ-rays is at least four orders of magnitude less
than in other γ-ray bursts, although its appearance was otherwise unremarkable:
this indicates that very different mechanisms can give rise to γ-ray
bursts. But independent of this association, the supernova is itself unusual,
exhibiting an unusual light curve at radio wavelengths that requires that
the gas emitting the radio photons be expanding relativistically,.
We present the results of a visible spectroscopic and photometric survey of Jupiter Trojans belonging to different dynamical families. The survey was carried out at the 3.5 m New Technology Telescope ...(NTT) of the European Southern Observatory (La Silla, Chile) in April 2003, May 2004 and January 2005. We obtained data on 47 objects, 23 belonging to the L5 swarm and 24 to the L4 one. These data together with those already published by Fornasier et al. Fornasier, S., Dotto, E., Marzari, F., Barucci, M.A., Boehnhardt, H., Hainaut, O., de Bergh, C., 2004a. Icarus 172, 221–232 and Dotto et al. Dotto, E., Fornasier, S., Barucci, M.A., Licandro, J., Boehnhardt, H., Hainaut, O., Marzari, F., de Bergh, C., De Luise, F., 2006. Icarus 183, 420–434, acquired since November 2002, constitute a total sample of visible spectra for 80 objects. The survey allows us to investigate six families (Aneas, Anchises, Misenus, Phereclos, Sarpedon, Panthoos) in the L5 cloud and four L4 families (Eurybates, Menelaus, 1986 WD and 1986 TS6). The sample that we measured is dominated by D-type asteroids, with the exception of the Eurybates family in the L4 swarm, where there is a dominance of C- and P-type asteroids. All the spectra that we obtained are featureless with the exception of some Eurybates members, where a drop-off of the reflectance is detected shortward of 5200 Å. Similar features are seen in main belt C-type asteroids and commonly attributed to the intervalence charge transfer transition in oxidized iron. Our sample comprises fainter and smaller Trojans as compared to the literature's data and allows us to investigate the properties of objects with estimated diameter smaller than 40–50 km. The analysis of the spectral slopes and colors versus the estimated diameters shows that the blue and red objects have indistinguishable size distribution, so any relationship between size and spectral slopes has been found. To fully investigate the Trojans population, we include in our analysis 62 spectra of Trojans available in literature, resulting in a total sample of 142 objects. Although the mean spectral behavior of L4 and L5 Trojans is indistinguishable within the uncertainties, we find that the L4 population is more heterogeneous and that it has a higher abundance of bluish objects as compared to the L5 swarm. Finally, we perform a statistical investigation of the Trojans's spectra property distributions as a function of their orbital and physical parameters, and in comparison with other classes of minor bodies in the outer Solar System. Trojans at lower inclination appear significantly bluer than those at higher inclination, but this effect is strongly driven by the Eurybates family. The mean colors of the Trojans are similar to those of short period comets and neutral Centaurs, but their color distributions are different.
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