Discovery, Observations and Investigations of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in Kyiv
2004; Springer Nature (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês
10.1007/978-1-4020-2573-0_1
ISSN2214-7985
Autores Tópico(s)Chemical Thermodynamics and Molecular Structure
ResumoRosetta, an European space vehicle 15 years in development, will head for the short period comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in February, 2004. In September 1969 S.Gerasimenko and myself went to the Alma-Ata Astrophysical Institute to conduct a survey of short period and new comets. Later that month, I examined an exposure of comet 32P/Comas Sola made on September 11.92 UT, 1969, and found a cometary object near the center of the plate which I assumed was the expected short period comet 32P/Comas Sola. Later explorations at Kyiv University revealed that this comet’s position was 1.8° from the predicated calculations of comet 32P. It was a new comet. The comet had an apparent magnitude of 13 and a faint tail about 1 arcmin in length at position angle 280 degrees. On the basis of the observations of comet 67P obtained in Nizhny Arkhyz with the help of the 6- BTA reflector of the Special Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) some physical parameters of its comet plasma tail (coefficients of diffusion D ‖, D ⊥ and induction of magnetic field B) were determined (Jan. 12.105, 1983 UT: D ‖ =5.07 × 1014÷1.21 × 1015 cm2/s, D ⊥=5.73 × 1013 ÷1.37 × 1014 cm2/s, B=46÷111 nT; Jan. 13.124, 1983 UT: D ‖ =4.67 × 1014 ÷1.14 × 1015 cm2/s, D ⊥=4.30×1013 ÷1.05 × 1014 cm2/s, B=55÷134 nT). Other results of exploration of comet 67P are discussed.
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