Discovery of a comet by its Lyman-α emission

J. Teemu T. Mäkinen (), Jean-Loup Bertaux, Harri Laakso, Tuija Pulkkinen, Tuula Summanen, Erkki Kyrölä, Walter Schmidt, Eric Quémerais and Rosine Lallement
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J. Teemu T. Mäkinen: Finnish Meteorological Institute, Geophysical Research
Jean-Loup Bertaux: Service d’Aeronomie
Harri Laakso: Finnish Meteorological Institute, Geophysical Research
Tuija Pulkkinen: Finnish Meteorological Institute, Geophysical Research
Tuula Summanen: Finnish Meteorological Institute, Geophysical Research
Erkki Kyrölä: Finnish Meteorological Institute, Geophysical Research
Walter Schmidt: Finnish Meteorological Institute, Geophysical Research
Eric Quémerais: Service d’Aeronomie
Rosine Lallement: Service d’Aeronomie

Nature, 2000, vol. 405, issue 6784, 321-322

Abstract: Abstract Several searches for near-Earth objects have recently been initiated, as a result of increased awareness of the hazard of impacts on the Earth. These programs mainly search for asteroids, so amateur astronomers can still contribute to the discovery of comets, especially out of the orbital plane of the Solar System. An ideal way to search for comets would be to use a spaceborne instrument capable of imaging the whole sky on a daily basis in a systematic and repeatable way. Such an instrument already exists on the solar observatory SOHO; it operates at the Lyman-α wavelength of neutral hydrogen, which is the main component of the emission cloud of a comet. Here we report the discovery, using archival data from this satellite, of a hitherto unnoticed comet which reached a perihelion of 1.546 a.u. on 26 June 1997. We derive the water production rate of the comet as a function of time and find that it increases after perihelion, like that of comet Halley.

Date: 2000
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DOI: 10.1038/35012526

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