Monitoring of comets activity and composition with the TRAPPIST-North telescope

Frontiers in Theoretical and Applied Physics/UAE 2017

Moulane, Y.^1,2 ; Benkhaldoun, Z.^1 ; Jehin, E.^2 ; Opitom, C.^2 ; Gillon, M.^2 ; Daassou, A.^1

Oukaimden Observatory, Laboratory of High Energy Physics and Astrophysics, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech, Morocco^1

Institut d'Astrophysique et de Géophysique, Université de Lìge, Lìge, Belgium^2

关键词: Chemical compositions;    Different origins;    Heliocentric distances;    Jupiter-family comets;    Narrow band filter;    Production rates;    Robotic telescope;    Southern Hemisphere;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/869/1/012079/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/869/1/012079

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

TRAPPIST-North (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope) is a 60-cm robotic telescope that was installed in May 2016 at the Oukaimeden Observatory [1]. The project is led by the University of Lìge (Belgium) and the Caddi Ayad University of Marrakech (Morocco). This telescope is a twin of the TRAPPIST-South telescope, which was installed at the ESO La Silla Observatory in 2010 [2]. The TRAPPIST telescopes are dedicated to the detection and characterization of planets orbiting stars other than our Sun (exoplanets) and the study of comets and other small bodies in our solar system. For the comets research, these telescopes have very sensitive CCD cameras with complete sets of narrow band filters to measure the production rates of several gases (OH, NH, CN, C3and C2) and the dust [3]. With TRAPPIST-North we can also observe comets that would not be visible in the southern hemisphere. Therfore, with these two telescopes, we can now observe continuously the comets around their orbit. We project to study individually the evolution of the activity, chemical composition, dust properties, and coma morphology of several comets per year and of different origins (New comets and Jupiter Family comets) over a wide range of heliocentric distances, and on both sides of perihelion. We measure the production rates of each daughter molecules using a Haser model [4], in addition to the Afρ parameter to estimate the dust production in the coma. In this work, we present the first measurements of the production rates of comet C/2013 X1 (PANSTARRS) observed with TN in June 2016, and the measurements of comet C/2013 V5 (Oukaimeden) observed in 2014 with TRAPPIST-South.