Cometary science with CUBES

Cyrielle Opitom; Colin Snodgrass; Fiorangela La Forgia; Chris Evans; Pamela Cambianica; Gabriele Cremonese; Alan Fitzsimmons; Monica Lazzarin; Alessandra Migliorini

doi:10.1007/s10686-022-09853-w

Cometary science with CUBES

Cyrielle Opitom^*, Colin Snodgrass, Fiorangela La Forgia, Chris Evans, Pamela Cambianica, Gabriele Cremonese, Alan Fitzsimmons, Monica Lazzarin, Alessandra Migliorini

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Physics and Astronomy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract / Description of output

The proposed CUBES spectrograph for ESO's Very Large Telescope will be an exceptionally powerful instrument for the study of comets. The gas coma of a comet contains a large number of emission features in the near-UV range covered by CUBES (305-400 nm), which are diagnostic of the composition of the ices in its nucleus and the chemistry in the coma. Production rates and relative ratios between different species reveal how much ice is present and inform models of the conditions in the early solar system. In particular, CUBES will lead to advances in detection of water from very faint comets, revealing how much ice may be hidden in the main asteroid belt, and in measuring isotopic and molecular composition ratios in a much wider range of comets than currently possible, provide constraints on their formation temperatures. CUBES will also be sensitive to emissions from gaseous metals (e.g., FeI and NiI), which have recently been identified in comets and offer an entirely new area of investigation to understand these enigmatic objects.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-15
Number of pages	15
Journal	Experimental Astronomy
Volume	22
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-022-09853-w
Publication status	Published - 13 Apr 2022

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

Comets
Spectroscopy
Ultraviolet observations

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10.1007/s10686-022-09853-wLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY)

mainAccepted author manuscript, 2.3 MB
2203.15579v1

1 Finished
1 Active

Cometary ices as probes of the formation conditions of planet building blocks
Opitom, C.
UK-based charities
1/01/22 → 31/12/26
Project: Research
Cometary Ices and the Role of Coma Evolution: Understanding the impact of coma evolution on comet taxonomies
Opitom, C.
UK-based charities
15/11/20 → 14/11/23
Project: Research

Cite this

@article{b3e7976b71e54a6da80385aad274f96a,

title = "Cometary science with CUBES",

abstract = " The proposed CUBES spectrograph for ESO's Very Large Telescope will be an exceptionally powerful instrument for the study of comets. The gas coma of a comet contains a large number of emission features in the near-UV range covered by CUBES (305-400 nm), which are diagnostic of the composition of the ices in its nucleus and the chemistry in the coma. Production rates and relative ratios between different species reveal how much ice is present and inform models of the conditions in the early solar system. In particular, CUBES will lead to advances in detection of water from very faint comets, revealing how much ice may be hidden in the main asteroid belt, and in measuring isotopic and molecular composition ratios in a much wider range of comets than currently possible, provide constraints on their formation temperatures. CUBES will also be sensitive to emissions from gaseous metals (e.g., FeI and NiI), which have recently been identified in comets and offer an entirely new area of investigation to understand these enigmatic objects. ",

keywords = "Comets, Spectroscopy, Ultraviolet observations",

author = "Cyrielle Opitom and Colin Snodgrass and Forgia, {Fiorangela La} and Chris Evans and Pamela Cambianica and Gabriele Cremonese and Alan Fitzsimmons and Monica Lazzarin and Alessandra Migliorini",

note = "UoE Read & Publish deal. Accepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022, The Author(s).",

year = "2022",

month = apr,

day = "13",

doi = "10.1007/s10686-022-09853-w",

language = "English",

volume = "22",

pages = "1--15",

journal = "Experimental Astronomy",

issn = "0922-6435",

publisher = "Springer",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Cometary science with CUBES

AU - Opitom, Cyrielle

AU - Snodgrass, Colin

AU - Forgia, Fiorangela La

AU - Evans, Chris

AU - Cambianica, Pamela

AU - Cremonese, Gabriele

AU - Fitzsimmons, Alan

AU - Lazzarin, Monica

AU - Migliorini, Alessandra

PY - 2022/4/13

Y1 - 2022/4/13

N2 - The proposed CUBES spectrograph for ESO's Very Large Telescope will be an exceptionally powerful instrument for the study of comets. The gas coma of a comet contains a large number of emission features in the near-UV range covered by CUBES (305-400 nm), which are diagnostic of the composition of the ices in its nucleus and the chemistry in the coma. Production rates and relative ratios between different species reveal how much ice is present and inform models of the conditions in the early solar system. In particular, CUBES will lead to advances in detection of water from very faint comets, revealing how much ice may be hidden in the main asteroid belt, and in measuring isotopic and molecular composition ratios in a much wider range of comets than currently possible, provide constraints on their formation temperatures. CUBES will also be sensitive to emissions from gaseous metals (e.g., FeI and NiI), which have recently been identified in comets and offer an entirely new area of investigation to understand these enigmatic objects.

AB - The proposed CUBES spectrograph for ESO's Very Large Telescope will be an exceptionally powerful instrument for the study of comets. The gas coma of a comet contains a large number of emission features in the near-UV range covered by CUBES (305-400 nm), which are diagnostic of the composition of the ices in its nucleus and the chemistry in the coma. Production rates and relative ratios between different species reveal how much ice is present and inform models of the conditions in the early solar system. In particular, CUBES will lead to advances in detection of water from very faint comets, revealing how much ice may be hidden in the main asteroid belt, and in measuring isotopic and molecular composition ratios in a much wider range of comets than currently possible, provide constraints on their formation temperatures. CUBES will also be sensitive to emissions from gaseous metals (e.g., FeI and NiI), which have recently been identified in comets and offer an entirely new area of investigation to understand these enigmatic objects.

KW - Comets

KW - Spectroscopy

KW - Ultraviolet observations

U2 - 10.1007/s10686-022-09853-w

DO - 10.1007/s10686-022-09853-w

M3 - Article

SN - 0922-6435

VL - 22

SP - 1

EP - 15

JO - Experimental Astronomy

JF - Experimental Astronomy

ER -

Cometary science with CUBES

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Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

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Projects

Cometary ices as probes of the formation conditions of planet building blocks

Cometary Ices and the Role of Coma Evolution: Understanding the impact of coma evolution on comet taxonomies

Cite this