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S.M. Lederer (Univ. FL), H. Campins (Univ. AZ), D.J. Osip (MIT)
Comet Hale-Bopp provided the first opportunity to examine OH jets in the coma of a comet. We presented the observations and initial results of this study in Lederer et al., EM&P, 1999. This included the identification of jets in our OH, NH, CN, \rm C2, \rm C3, and dust narrowband filter images. Here we present an analysis of the OH jets using Monte Carlo models of the inner coma. The images were acquired in March and April, 1997 using Lowell Observatory's 1.1m Hall telescope in conjunction with the \rm 20482 CCD camera. The narrowband filter employed was designed to isolate the emission from OH at \rm 3090 Å.
We have developed time-dependent Monte Carlo models with jets originating from (1) a nuclear molecular water source, and (2) an extended source of sub-micron organic CHON grains. We compare our observations with these models with the goal of understanding the source of the OH. The parameters that will be discussed include a) the radial profile of surface brightness for the jets and for the regions between the jets, b) the morphology of the jets, c) the enhancement of the jets above the isotropic background, and d) the evolution of the jets with time. Preliminary results suggest that an extended source is at least partially responsible for the jets.
This work was supported by NASA.