A quarter-century of observations of comet 10p/tempel 2 at Lowell observatory: Continued spin-down, coma morphology, production rates, and numerical modeling

摘要

We report on photometry and imaging of Comet 10P/Tempel 2 obtained at Lowell Observatory from 1983 through 2011. We measured a nucleus rotation period of 8.950 ± 0.002hr from 16 nights of imaging acquired between 2010 September and 2011 January. This rotation period is longer than the period we previously measured in 1999, which was itself longer than the period measured in 1988, and demonstrates that Tempel 2 is continuing to spin down, presumably due to torques caused by asymmetric outgassing. A nearly linear jet was observed which varied little during a rotation cycle in both R and CN images acquired during the 1999 and 2010 apparitions. We measured the projected direction of this jet throughout the two apparitions and, under the assumption that the source region of the jet was near the comet's pole, determined a rotational pole direction of R.A./decl. = 151°/+59° from CN measurements and R.A./decl. = 173°/+57° from dust measurements(we estimate a circular uncertainty of 3° for CN and 4° for dust). Different combinations of effects likely bias both gas and dust solutions and we elected to average these solutions for a final pole direction of R.A./decl. = 162° ± 11°/+58° ± 1°. Photoelectric photometry was acquired on 3 nights in 1983, 2 nights in 1988, 19 nights in 1999/2000, and 10 nights in 2010/2011. The activity exhibited a steep "turn-on" ～3months prior to perihelion(the exact timing of which varies)and a relatively smooth decline after perihelion. The activity during the 1999 and 2010 apparitions was similar; limited data in 1983 and 1988(along with IUE data from the literature)were systematically higher and the difference cannot be explained entirely by the smaller perihelion distance. We measured a "typical" composition, in agreement with previous investigators. Monte Carlo numerical modeling with our pole solution best replicated the observed coma morphology for a source region located near a comet latitude of +80° and having a radius of ～10°. Our model reproduced the seasonal changes in activity, suggesting that the majority of Tempel 2's activity originates from a small active region located near the pole. We also find that a cosine-squared solar angle function gives the best fit as compared to a standard cosine function.