In this work,we report observations of three comets:38P/Stephan-Oterma,64P/Swift-Gehrels,and C/2017 M4(ATLAS),conducted with the Nanshan one-meter wide-field telescope in 2018 August and November,and 2019January.We ex...In this work,we report observations of three comets:38P/Stephan-Oterma,64P/Swift-Gehrels,and C/2017 M4(ATLAS),conducted with the Nanshan one-meter wide-field telescope in 2018 August and November,and 2019January.We extracted morphological features through image enhancement techniques and calculated the dust activity parameter,Afρ,along with dust mass loss rates and coma color indices using broadband photometric data.Our morphological analysis uncovered a spectrum of dust characteristics among the observed comets,ranging from a significant twisted structure in comet 38P/Stephan-Oterma’s coma to the regular coma envelope surrounding comet 64P/Swift-Gehrels.The Afρvalues varied between 148.8±0.3 cm for 64P/Swift-Gehrels and1118.5±6.2 cm for C/2017 M4(ATLAS)(measured within a reference aperture radius ofρ=6″),indicating a range from moderate to high activity levels.Dust mass loss rates were estimated from 328.1 kg s^(-1)for comet 64P/Swift-Gehrels to 1395.5 kg s^(-1)for comet C/2017 M4(ATLAS).The color indices of comets 38P/Stephan-Oterma and C/2017 M4(ATLAS)closely resemble the average colors of active short-period comets and active longperiod comets,respectively.In contrast,64P/Swift-Gehrels exhibits a significantly bluer hue than typical Jupiter family comets.展开更多
We used the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST)to search for the molecular emissions in the L-band between 1.0 and 1.5 GHz toward four comets,C/2020 F3(NEOWISE),C/2020 R4(ATLAS),C/2021 A1(Leona...We used the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST)to search for the molecular emissions in the L-band between 1.0 and 1.5 GHz toward four comets,C/2020 F3(NEOWISE),C/2020 R4(ATLAS),C/2021 A1(Leonard),and 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during or after their perihelion passages.Thousands of molecular transition lines fall in this low-frequency range,many attributed to complex organic or prebiotic molecules.We conducted a blind search for the possible molecular lines in this frequency range in those comets and could not identify clear signals of molecular emissions in the data.Although several molecules have been detected at high frequencies of greater than100 GHz in comets,our results confirm that it is challenging to detect molecular transitions in the L-band frequency ranges.The non-detection of L-band molecular lines in the cometary environment could rule out the possibility of unusually strong lines,which could be caused by the masers or non-LTE effects.Although the line strengths are predicted to be weak,for FAST,using the ultra-wide bandwidth receiver and improving the radio frequency interference environments would enhance the detectability of those molecular transitions at low frequencies in the future.展开更多
基金supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China(grant No.2021D01B112)Tianshan Talent Training Program through the grant 2023TSYCCX0101。
文摘In this work,we report observations of three comets:38P/Stephan-Oterma,64P/Swift-Gehrels,and C/2017 M4(ATLAS),conducted with the Nanshan one-meter wide-field telescope in 2018 August and November,and 2019January.We extracted morphological features through image enhancement techniques and calculated the dust activity parameter,Afρ,along with dust mass loss rates and coma color indices using broadband photometric data.Our morphological analysis uncovered a spectrum of dust characteristics among the observed comets,ranging from a significant twisted structure in comet 38P/Stephan-Oterma’s coma to the regular coma envelope surrounding comet 64P/Swift-Gehrels.The Afρvalues varied between 148.8±0.3 cm for 64P/Swift-Gehrels and1118.5±6.2 cm for C/2017 M4(ATLAS)(measured within a reference aperture radius ofρ=6″),indicating a range from moderate to high activity levels.Dust mass loss rates were estimated from 328.1 kg s^(-1)for comet 64P/Swift-Gehrels to 1395.5 kg s^(-1)for comet C/2017 M4(ATLAS).The color indices of comets 38P/Stephan-Oterma and C/2017 M4(ATLAS)closely resemble the average colors of active short-period comets and active longperiod comets,respectively.In contrast,64P/Swift-Gehrels exhibits a significantly bluer hue than typical Jupiter family comets.
基金supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC)No.11988101by the NSFC grant Nos.11703047,11773041,U2031119,12173052,12173053,12373032,and 11963002+6 种基金support from the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation grant No.2023M733271the Foundation of Education Bureau of Guizhou Province,China(grant No.KY(2020)003)supported by the International Partnership Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,program No.114A11KYSB20210010the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(ID Nos.2023064,2018075,and Y2022027)the support from the National Key R&D Program of China grant Nos.2022YFC2205202 and 2020SKA0120100supported by the CAS“Light of West China”Programthe support by the NSFC grant No.12373026。
文摘We used the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST)to search for the molecular emissions in the L-band between 1.0 and 1.5 GHz toward four comets,C/2020 F3(NEOWISE),C/2020 R4(ATLAS),C/2021 A1(Leonard),and 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during or after their perihelion passages.Thousands of molecular transition lines fall in this low-frequency range,many attributed to complex organic or prebiotic molecules.We conducted a blind search for the possible molecular lines in this frequency range in those comets and could not identify clear signals of molecular emissions in the data.Although several molecules have been detected at high frequencies of greater than100 GHz in comets,our results confirm that it is challenging to detect molecular transitions in the L-band frequency ranges.The non-detection of L-band molecular lines in the cometary environment could rule out the possibility of unusually strong lines,which could be caused by the masers or non-LTE effects.Although the line strengths are predicted to be weak,for FAST,using the ultra-wide bandwidth receiver and improving the radio frequency interference environments would enhance the detectability of those molecular transitions at low frequencies in the future.
