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S. Kern (UAZ), D.W. McCarthy (UAZ), S. Stolovy (UAZ), G. Schneider (UAZ), A. Ferro (UAZ), H. Spinrad (UCB)
Diffraction-limited images of comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) were obtained at wavelengths from 1.87-2.22 microns by NICMOS/HST on UT August 27-28, 1997. At this time the comet was 2.99 AU from Earth, yielding a spatial resolution of 165 km/pixel. At least two outbursts are evident from a variety of linear and spiral features which expand away from the nucleus over the 1.7 hour baseline of these observations. Absorption by water ice is evident from images obtained both on and off of the solid-state feature at 2.04 microns generally attributed to water ice. We discuss the morphologies of the outbursts and the radial variation of water ice absorption.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: susank@as.arizona.edu