FUV observation of the comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) with FIMS

  • Lim, Yeo-Myeong (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)) ;
  • Min, Kyoung Wook (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)) ;
  • Feldman, Paul D. (The Johns Hopkins University) ;
  • Han, Wonyong (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI)) ;
  • Edelstein, Jerry (University of California)
  • Published : 2012.10.17

Abstract

We present the results of far-ultraviolet (FUV) observations of comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) obtained with Far-ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (FIMS) on board the Korean microsatellite STSAT-1, which operated at an altitude of 700 km in a sun-synchronous orbit. FIMS is a dual-channel imaging spectrograph (S channel 900-1150 ${\AA}$, L channel 1350-1750 ${\AA}$, ${\lambda}/{\Delta}{\lambda}$ ~ 550) with large image fields of view (S: $4^{\circ}.0{\times}4^{\prime}.6$, L: $7^{\circ}.5{\times}4^{\prime}.3$, angular resolution 5'-10') optimized for the observation of diffuse emission of astrophysical radiation. Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) was observed with a scanning survey mode when it was located around the perihelion between 8 and 15 May 2004. Several important emission lines were detected including S I (1425, 1474 ${\AA}$), C I (1561, 1657 ${\AA}$) and several emission lines of CO $A^1{\Pi}-X^1{\Sigma}^+$ system in the L channel. Production rates of the notable molecules, such as C I, S I and CO, were estimated from the photon fluxes of these spectral lines and compared with previous observations. We compare the flux and the production rates in the radius of $3{\times}10^5$ km with $20{\times}10^5$ km from the central coma. We obtained L-channel image which have map size $5^{\circ}{\times}5^{\circ}$ The image was constructed for the wavelength band of L-channel (1350 - 1710 ${\AA}$. We also present the radial profiles of S I, C I, CO obtained from the spectral images of the central coma. The radial profiles of $2{\times}10^6$ km region are compared with the Haser model.

Keywords