Abstract
We analyze observations of Comet IRAS-Araki-Alcock taken on 1983 May 10 to determine the spatial molecular abundance of C 2 in the inner coma via the Δν = +1 Swan band sequence near 4690 Å; total molecular abundance for C 2 is ∼6 × 10 27 molecules across a projected linear diameter of ∼9700 km centered on the nucleus. These observations show a deficiency of C 2 emission across a projected diameter of ∼2000 km centered on the peak of continuum emission. Comet imagery reveals a sunward-pointing coma suggestive of an outburst of subsurface volatile ices through a nonvolatile surface crust as predicted for periodic comets. Moreover, such imagery suggests that Haser model scale lengths for C 2 and its parent molecule, as derived from our observations, do not fit the data very well. Our results are discussed in terms of the then-developing instrument and observational constraints which applied at the time.
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