Ground-based Support of Comet Nuclei Space Missions

Abstract

There are currently five space missions en route to or planned for comet encounters. It is important for the success of each mission that its target be characterized as fully as possible prior to the encounter. This progress report analyses initial photometric results for 11 comet nuclei for the Stardust, Rosetta, Deep Impact, CONTOUR, Deep Space 1, and the proposed Comet Nucleus Sample Return missions from a database of comet CCD images. Our 17-year database contains more than 20,500 images of ∼160 comets taken during > 1,500 observing hours (Pittichová & Meech 2000). We are undertaking a program to observe these 11 comets over a wide range of heliocentric distances to obtain information about their behavior and composition that will be particularly useful to the space missions.