We present near-infrared observations of organic molecules in comet 8P/Tuttle. Comet 8P/Tuttle is a Halley-type comet and its last perihelion was in early January 2008. Our observations were carried ...out on January 28 and February 4 using CRIRES (CRyogenic high-resolution InfraRed Echelle Spectrograph) at the Very Large Telescope (VLT). We used a 0.2" slit which provided a spectral resolving power of 80,000. We detected HSUB2/SUBO, OH, HCN, CSUB2/SUBHSUB2/SUB on Jan 28, and HSUB2/SUBO, OH, CHSUB4/SUB, CSUB2/SUBHSUB6/SUB, and CHSUB3/SUBOH on Feb 4. We find that 8P/Tuttle is depleted in HCN, CSUB2/SUBHSUB2/SUB and CSUB2/SUBHSUB6/SUB relative to HSUB2/SUBO compared with most other Oort cloud comets studied to date. Perhaps these depletions suggest that 8P/Tuttle formed in a different region from most Oort cloud comets, but it is also possible that the depletions are caused by repeated passages through the inner solar system.
