Far-ultraviolet Observations of the Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT)

  • Lim, Yeo-Myeong (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology(KAIST)) ;
  • Min, Kyoung-Wook (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology(KAIST)) ;
  • Seon, K.I. (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute) ;
  • Han, W. (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute) ;
  • Edelstein, J. (University of California)
  • Published : 2011.04.15

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 ${\AA}$, ${\lambda}/{\Box}{\lambda}$ ~ 550) with large image fields of view (S: $4^{\circ}.0{\times}4'.6$, L: $7^{\circ}.5{\times}4'.3$, 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 $A1{\cap}-X1{\sum}+$ system in the L channel. We estimated QCO = ($2.58\;{\pm}\;0.64)\;{\times}\;1028$ s-1 from the production rate of CO 1510 ${\AA}$. We obtained L-channel image which have map size of $5^{\circ}{\times}5^{\circ}$. The image was constructed for the wavelength band of L-channel (1350-1750 ${\AA}$).We also obtained radial profile of S I, C I, CO with line fitting from central coma.

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