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M. F. A'Hearn (Univ. Md.), N. Mastrodemos (JPL), T. L. Farnham (Univ. Md.), J. M. Sunshine (SAIC), M. J. S. Belton (BSEI), W. M. Owen (JPL), Deep Impact Team
While Deep Impact was approaching 9P/Tempel 1, three outbursts were observed. The first occured on June 14 and was first reported by L. Lara It was also seen in data from HST and DI. No reports have been received of other detections of the outburst on June 22, even though the cometary brightness, as observed at 4-hour intervals by DI, increased by many times more than it did on June 14. Projected expansion velocity of the dust on June 22 is 0.16 km/s but the true velocity may be mostly out of the plane of the sky. Water increased substantially during the outburst as did CO2. There are also unidentified spectral features in the IR. A third outburst was detected on Jun 30. All outbursts dissipated rapidly although a residual level of activity remained for several days after the outburst of June 22. The data seem to require more than one source on the nucleus. Supported by NASA contract NASW00004 to the University of Maryland.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #3
© 2004. The American Astronomical Soceity.