Detection of Diatomic Carbon in 2I/Borisov

Lin, Hsing Wen; Lee, Chien‐Hsiu; Gerdes, D. W.; Adams, Fred C.; Becker, Juliette; Napier, Kevin; Markwardt, Larissa

doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ab6bd9

Cited by 33 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…However, the spectrum could also be consistent with a non-organic, iron-rich surface ('Oumuamua ISSI Team, 2019). While some observations of C2 and CN in 2I/Borisov suggest it is comparable to some of the most carbon-depleted comets in our solar system (Fitzsimmons et al, 2019;Opitom et al, 2019;Lin et al, 2020), more recent reports that examine the time history 2I/Borisov's cometary activity suggest it may only be barely depleted (Bannister et al, 2020). Thus, the presence or absence of organic compounds in either object is uncertain.…”

Section: Science Objectivementioning

confidence: 66%

Bridge to the stars: A mission concept to an interstellar object

Moore

Courville

Ferguson

et al. 2021

Planetary and Space Science

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This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

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Section: Science Objectivementioning

confidence: 66%

Bridge to the stars: A mission concept to an interstellar object

Moore

Courville

Ferguson

et al. 2021

Planetary and Space Science

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“…Early observations, mainly with optical low-resolution spectrographs, showed that 2I is depleted in C 2 , similarly to So-E-mail: copi@roe.ac.uk lar System carbon-chain depleted comets (Fitzsimmons et al (2019); Opitom et al (2019a); Bannister et al (2020); Kareta et al (2020); Lin et al (2020); Aravind et al (2021)). Later, Cordiner et al (2020) and Bodewits et al (2020) reported that 2I is very rich in CO relative to both water and HCN, more than any Solar System comet observed within 2.5 au from the Sun.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 78%

The similarity of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov to Solar System comets from high-resolution optical spectroscopy

Opitom

Jehin

Hutsemékers

et al. 2021

A&A

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Aims. 2I/Borisov (hereafter 2I) is the first visibly active interstellar comet observed in the Solar System, allowing us for the first time to sample the composition of a building block from another system. We report on the monitoring of 2I with the Ultraviolet-Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES), the high-resolution optical spectrograph of the ESO Very Large Telescope at Paranal, for four months from November 15, 2019 to March 16, 2020. Our goal is to characterise the activity and composition of 2I with respect to Solar System comets. Methods. We collected high-resolution spectra at 12 different epochs from 2.1 au pre-perihelion to 2.6 au post-perihelion. Results. On December 24 and 26, 2019, close to perihelion, we detected several OH lines of the 309 nm (0-0) band and derived a water production rate of 2.2 ± 0.2 × 10 26 molecules/s. The three [OI] forbidden oxygen lines were detected at different epochs and we derived a green-to-red doublet intensity ratio (G/R) of 0.31±0.05 close to perihelion. The NH 2 ortho and para lines from various bands were measured and allowed us to derive an ortho-to-para abundance ratio (OPR) of 3.21 ± 0.15, corresponding to an OPR and spin temperature of ammonia of 1.11 ± 0.08 and 31 +10 −5 K, respectively. These values are consistent with the values usually measured for Solar System comets. Emission lines of the radicals NH (336 nm), CN (388 nm), CH (431 nm), and C 2 (517 nm) were also detected. Several FeI and NiI lines were identified and their intensities were measured to provide a ratio of log (NiI/FeI) = 0.21 ± 0.18, which is in agreement with the value recently found in Solar System comets. Conclusions. Our high spectral resolution observations of 2I/Borisov and the associated measurements of the NH 2 OPR and the Ni/Fe abundance ratio are remarkably similar to Solar System comets. Only the G/R ratio is unusually high, but it is consistent with the high abundance ratio of CO/H 2 O found by other investigators.

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“…Later, de León et al (2020), Opitom et al (2019) and Kareta et al (2020), have all reported the clear detection of CN along with an upper limit to the production rate of C 2 (0-0) emissions. Lin et al (2020) and Bannister et al (2020) have reported the clear detection of both CN and C 2 in their spectrum, with the latter work having the most detailed spectrum of 2I/Borisov reporting the detection of well-resolved C 2 , NH 2 and CN emissions. In this paper, we discuss the spectroscopic and imaging observations carried out from two Indian observatories during November and December 2019, to study the evolution of molecular emissions and also to put constraints on the physical characteristics of the rare interstellar comet 2I/Borisov.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Activity of the first interstellar comet 2I/Borisov around perihelion: Results from Indian observatories

Krishnakumar,

Ganesh,

Venkataramani

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Comet 2I/Borisov is the first true interstellar comet discovered. Here we present results from observational programs at two Indian observatories, 2 m Himalayan Chandra Telescope at the Indian Astronomical Observatory, Hanle (HCT) and 1.2 m telescope at the Mount Abu Infrared Observatory (MIRO). Two epochs of imaging and spectroscopy were carried out at the HCT and three epochs of imaging at MIRO. We found CN to be the dominant molecular emission on both epochs, 31/11/2019 and 22/12/2019, at distances of r H = 2.013 and 2.031 AU respectively. The comet was inferred to be relatively depleted in Carbon bearing molecules on the basis of low C 2 and C 3 abundances. We find the production rate ratio, Q(C 2 )/Q(CN) = 0.54 ± 0.18, pre-perihelion and Q(C 2 )/Q(CN) = 0.34 ± 0.12 post-perihelion. This classifies the comet as being moderately depleted in carbon chain molecules. Using the results from spectroscopic observations, we believe the comet to have a chemically heterogeneous surface having variation in abundance of carbon chain molecules. From imaging observations we infer a dust-to-gas ratio similar to carbon chain depleted comets of the Solar system. We also compute the nucleus size to be in the range 0.18 ≤ r ≤ 3.1 Km. Our observations show that 2I/Borisov's behaviour is analogous to that of the Solar system comets.

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Detection of Diatomic Carbon in 2I/Borisov

Cited by 33 publications

References 30 publications

Bridge to the stars: A mission concept to an interstellar object

Bridge to the stars: A mission concept to an interstellar object

The similarity of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov to Solar System comets from high-resolution optical spectroscopy

Activity of the first interstellar comet 2I/Borisov around perihelion: Results from Indian observatories

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