Radio OH observations of 9P/Tempel 1 before and after Deep Impact

Abstract

We observed 18-cm OH emission in Comet 9P/Tempel 1 before and after Deep Impact. Observations using the Arecibo Observatory 305 m telescope took place between 8 April and 9 June, 2005, followed by post-impact observations using the National Radio Astronomy Observatory 100 m Green Bank Telescope 4–12 July, 2005. The resulting spectra were analyzed with a kinematic Monte Carlo model which allows estimation of the OH production rate, neutral gas outflow velocity, and distribution of the out-gassing from the nucleus. We detected typically 24% variability from the overall OH production rate trend in the two months leading up to the impact, and no dramatic increase in OH production in the days post-impact. Generally, the coma is well-described, within uncertainties, by a symmetric model with OH production rates from 1.6 to 7.4 × 10 27 mol s −1 , and mean water outflow velocity of 0.75 ± 0.03 km s −1 . At these low production rates, collisional quenching is expected to occur only within 20,000 km of the nucleus. However, our best-fit average quenching radius is 64,200 ± 22,000 km in April and May.