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C.M. Lisse (University of Maryland), Y.R. Fernandez (University of Hawaii), D.A. Biesecker (NASA/GSFC)
The joint NASA/ESA solar observatory SOHO mission observed comet 96P/Machholz 1 in 4 broad band optical/near-IR filters on 7 Jan 2002 to 11 Jan 2002. The observations provided a unique opportunity to observe this bright comet's extended coma and dust tail structure through its extremely close pereihelion passage (q = 0.1 AU). Because of the small perihelion distance, the dust emission velocities and production rates are much larger than for the typical comet observation at ~ 1 AU; a preliminary calculation suggests the dust observable in the ~ 10' tail is replenished daily. Because the comet is passing through perihelion, the dust tail is highly structured and contains a copious amount of information on the properties of the constiuent dust. We present preliminary images, light curves, spectrophotometry, and dynamical models of the comet's dust coma and tail.
If the author provided an email address or URL for general inquiries,
it is as follows:
www.astro.umd.edu/~lisse
Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34, #3
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.