1. The NEOWISE-Discovered Comet Population and the CO+CO2 production rates
- Author
-
Bauer, James M., Stevenson, Rachel, Kramer, Emily, Mainzer, A. K., Grav, Tommy, Masiero, Joseph R., Fern��ndez, Yan R., Cutri, Roc M., Dailey, John W., Masci, Frank J., Meech, Karen J., Walker, Russel, Lisse, C. M., Weissman, Paul R., Nugent, Carrie R., Sonnett, Sarah, Blair, Nathan, Lucas, Andrew, McMillan, Robert S., Wright, Edward L., WISE, the, and Teams, NEOWISE
- Subjects
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics - Abstract
The 163 comets observed during the WISE/NEOWISE prime mission represent the largest infrared survey to date of comets, providing constraints on dust, nucleus sizes, and CO+CO2 production. We present detailed analyses of the WISE/NEOWISE comet discoveries, and discuss observations of the active comets showing 4.6 $\mu$m band excess. We find a possible relation between dust and CO+CO2 production, as well as possible differences in the sizes of long and short period comet nuclei., Comment: 67 pages, 10 figures, 6 Tables; Accepted by The Astrophysical Journal
- Published
- 2015