Michael A. DiSanti

Strong Release of Methane on Mars in Northern Summer 2003

Living systems produce more than 90% of Earths atmospheric methane; the balance is of geochemical origin. On Mars, methane could be a signature of either origin. Using high-dispersion infrared spectrometers at three ground-based telescopes, we measured methane and water vapor simultaneously on Mars over several longitude intervals in northern early and late summer in 2003 and near the vernal equinox in 2006. When present, methane occurred in extended plumes, and the maxima of latitudinal profiles imply that the methane was released from discrete regions. In northern midsummer, the principal plume contained ∼19,000 metric tons of methane, and the estimated source strength (≥0.6 kilogram per second) was comparable to that of the massive hydrocarbon seep at Coal Oil Point in Santa Barbara, California.

Detection of Abundant Ethane and Methane, Along with Carbon Monoxide and Water, in Comet C/1996 B2 Hyakutake: Evidence for Interstellar Origin

The saturated hydrocarbons ethane (C2H6) and methane (CH4) along with carbon monoxide (CO) and water (H2O) were detected in comet C/1996 B2 Hyakutake with the use of high-resolution infrared spectroscopy at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The inferred production rates of molecular gases from the icy, cometary nucleus (in molecules per second) are 6.4 × 1026 for C2H6, 1.2 × 1027 for CH4, 9.8 × 1027 for CO, and 1.7 × 1029 for H2O. An abundance of C2H6 comparable to that of CH4 implies that ices in C/1996 B2 Hyakutake did not originate in a thermochemically equilibrated region of the solar nebula. The abundances are consistent with a kinetically controlled production process, but production of C2H6 by gas-phase ion molecule reactions in the natal cloud core is energetically forbidden. The high C2H6/CH4 ratio is consistent with production of C2H6 in icy grain mantles in the natal cloud, either by photolysis of CH4-rich ice or by hydrogen-addition reactions to acetylene condensed from the gas phase.

Remote infrared observations of parent volatiles in comets: A window on the early solar system

Abstract Organic volatiles and water in Oort Cloud comets were investigated at infrared wavelengths. The detected species include H 2 O, CO, CH 3 OH, CH 4 , C 2 H 2 , C 2 H 6 , OCS, HCN, NH 3 , and H 2 CO. Several daughter fragments (CN, OH, NH 2 , etc.) are also measured, and OH prompt emission provides a proxy for water. Long-slit spectra are taken at high spectral dispersion and high spatial resolution, eliminating several sources of systematic error. The resulting parent volatile production rates are highly robust, permitting a sensitive search for compositional diversity among comets. Here, seven OC comets are compared. Six (including Halley) exhibit similar compositions (excepting CO and CH 4 ). Their low formation temperatures (∼30 K) suggest this group probably formed beyond 30 AU from the young sun. However, C/1999 S4 is severely depleted in hypervolatiles and also in methanol, and it likely formed near 5–10 AU. C/2001 A2 is discussed briefly to illustrate future prospects.

A Survey of Organic Volatile Species in Comet C/1999 H1 (Lee) Using NIRSPEC at the Keck Observatory

The organic volatile composition of the long-period comet C/1999 H1 (Lee) was investigated using the —rst of a new generation of cross-dispersed cryogenic infrared spectrometers (NIRSPEC, at the Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea, HI). On 1999 August 19¨21 the organics spectral region (2.9¨3.7 km) was completely sampled at both moderate and high dispersion, along with the CO fundamental region (near 4.67 km), revealing emission from water, carbon monoxide, methanol, methane, ethane, acetylene, and hydrogen cyanide. Many new multiplets from OH in the 1¨0 band were seen in prompt emission, and numerous new spectral lines were detected. Several spectral extracts are shown, and global production rates are presented for seven parent volatiles. Carbon monoxide is strongly depleted in comet Lee relative to comets Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp, demonstrating that chemical diversity occurred in the giant

CO Emission from Disks around AB Aurigae and HD 141569: Implications for Disk Structure and Planet Formation Timescales

We present a comparison of CO fundamental rovibrational lines (observed in the M band near 4.7 μm) from the inner circumstellar disks around the Herbig AeBe stars AB Aur and HD 141569. The CO spatial profiles and temperatures constrain the location of the gas for both stars to a distance of less than 50 AU. The CO emission from the disk of the ~4 Myr star AB Aur shows at least two temperature components, the inner disk at a rotational temperature of 1540 ± 80 K and the outer disk at 70 ± 10 K. The hot gas is located near the hot bright inner rim of the disk and the cold gas is located in the outer disk from 8-50 AU. The relative intensities of low-J lines suggest that the cold gas is optically thick. The excitation of CO in both temperature regimes is dominated by infrared fluorescence (resonant scattering). In the more evolved disk around HD 141569, the CO is excited by UV fluorescence. The relative intensity of the CO emission lines implies a rotational temperature of 190 ± 30 K. The resulting column density is ~ 1011 cm-2, indicating approximately 1019 g of CO. The observed line profiles indicate that the inner disk has been cleared of CO gas by stellar radiation out to a minimum of 17 AU. The residual mass of CO suggests that the inner disk of HD 141569 is not in an active phase of planet building but it does not rule out the possibility that giant planet building has previously occurred.

Water Production Rates, Rotational Temperatures, and Spin Temperatures in Comets C/1999 H1 (Lee), C/1999 S4, and C/2001 A2

Water hot-band lines were detected in comets C/1999 H1 (Lee), C/1999 S4 (LINEAR), and C/2001 A2 (LINEAR) in the 2.9 � m spectral region using high-dispersion (k=� k � 2 ; 10 4 ) infrared spectroscopy with NIRSPEC at the W. M. Keck Observatory. The density of H2O emissions in this spectral region, the spectral coverage and resolution of NIRSPEC, and fluorescence models developed for these hot bands enabled the determination of H2O production rates, rotational temperatures, and ortho-to-para ratios (OPRs) in these comets. Previous studies revealed clear diversity in the volatile organic chemistries of these comets, suggesting that they may have formed in different regions of the early solar nebula. The nuclear spin temperature of H2O as derived from its OPR is another possible indicator of cometary formation temperature and region. Nuclear spin temperatures for H2O were derived on one date in comet S4 and two dates in Lee and A2. Derived spin temperatures for H2O in these comets are � 30, 30 þ15 � 6 ,a nd 23 þ4 � 3 K for S4, Lee, and A2, respectively. Measurements are consistent with a possible link between nuclear spin temperatures and volatile abundances, but studies of more comets and continued improvements in water hot-band fluorescence models are needed to more stringently test this. Subject headingg comets: general — comets: individual (C/1999 S4, C/2001 A2, Lee (C/1999 H1)) — infrared: solar system — techniques: spectroscopic

Identification of two sources of carbon monoxide in comet Hale-Bopp

The composition of ices in comets may reflect that of the molecular cloud in which the Sun formed, or it may show evidence of chemical processing in the pre-planetary accretion disk around the proto-Sun. As carbon monoxide (CO) is ubiquitous in molecular clouds,, its abundance with respect to water could help to determine the degree to which pre-cometary material was processed, although variations in CO abundance may also be influenced by the distance from the Sun at which comets formed. Observations have not hitherto provided an unambiguous measure of CO in the cometary ice (native CO). Evidence for an extended source of CO associated with comet Halley was provided by the Giotto spacecraft, but alternative interpretations exist. Here we report observations of comet Hale–Bopp which show that about half of the CO in the comet comes directly from ice stored in the nucleus. The abundance of this CO with respect to water (12 per cent) is smaller than in quiescent regions of molecular clouds, but is consistent with that measured in proto-stellar envelopes, suggesting that the ices underwent some processing before their inclusion into Hale–Bopp. The remaining CO arises in the coma, probably through thermal destruction of more complex molecules.

Detection of Formaldehyde Emission in Comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) at Infrared Wavelengths: Line-by-Line Validation of Modeled Fluorescent Intensities

Formaldehyde (H2CO) was observed in comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) with spectral resolving power k/� k � 2.5 ; 10 4 using the Cryogenic Echelle Spectrometer (CSHELL) at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, on UT 2004 May 5, 7, and 9. The observations, which sampled emission in the � 1 and � 5 rovibrational bands between 3.53 and 3.62 � m, represent the first spectrally resolved detection, at infrared wavelengths, of monomeric H2CO spanning a range of rotational energies. A comparison of measured line intensities with an existing fluorescence model permitted extraction of rotational temperatures and production rates. Two complementary approaches were used: (1)acorrelationanalysisthatprovidedadirectglobalcomparisonoftheobservedcometaryemissionswiththemodel and (2) an excitation analysis that provided a robust line-by-line comparison. Our results validate the fluorescence model. The overall correlation coefficient was near or above 0.9 in our two principal grating settings. The excitation analysis provided accurate measures of rotational excitation (rotational temperature) on all three dates, with retrieved values of Trot clustering near 100 K. Through simultaneous measurement of OH prompt emission, which we use as a proxy for H2O, we obtained native production rates and mixing ratios for H2CO. The native production of H2CO varied from day to day, but its abundance relative to H2O, Xnative, remained approximately constant within the errors, which may suggest an overall homogeneous composition of the nucleus. We measured a mean mixing ratio Xnative = (0.79 � 0.09) ; 10 � 2 for the three dates. Subject headingg astrochemistry — comets: individual (C/2002 T7 (LINEAR)) — infrared: solar system Online material: color figures

Temporal and Spatial Aspects of Gas Release During the 2010 Apparition of Comet 103P/Hartley 2

We report measurements of eight primary volatiles (H_(2)O, HCN, CH_4, C_(2)H_6, CH_(3)OH, C_(2)H_2, H_(2)CO, and NH_3) and two product species (OH and NH_2) in comet 103P/Hartley 2 using high-dispersion infrared spectroscopy. We quantified the long- and short-term behavior of volatile release over a three-month interval that encompassed the comets close approach to Earth, its perihelion passage, and flyby of the comet by the Deep Impact spacecraft during the EPOXI mission. We present production rates for individual species, their mixing ratios relative to water, and their spatial distributions in the coma on multiple dates. The production rates for water, ethane, HCN, and methanol vary in a manner consistent with independent measures of nucleus rotation, but mixing ratios for HCN, C_(2)H_6, and CH_(3)OH are independent of rotational phase. Our results demonstrate that the ensemble average composition of gas released from the nucleus is well defined and relatively constant over the three-month interval (September 18 through December 17). If individual vents vary in composition, enough diverse vents must be active simultaneously to approximate (in sum) the bulk composition of the nucleus. The released primary volatiles exhibit diverse spatial properties which favor the presence of separate polar and apolar ice phases in the nucleus, establish dust and gas release from icy clumps (and from the nucleus), and provide insights into the driver for the cyanogen (CN) polar jet. The spatial distributions of C_(2)H_6 and HCN along the near-polar jet (UT October 19.5) and nearly orthogonal to it (UT October 22.5) are discussed relative to the origin of CN. The ortho-para ratio (OPR) of water was 2.85 ± 0.20; the lower bound (2.65) defines T_spin > 32 K. These values are consistent with results returned from the Infrared Space Observatory in 1997.

A tentative identification of methanol as the progenitor of the 3.52-μm emission feature in several comets

Abstract We observed Comets P/Brorsen-Metcalf (1989 X), Okazaki-Levy-Rudenko (1989 XIX), Austin (1989c1), and Levy (1990c) in the 3.44 – 3.64 μm spectral region. Continuum emission was detected in all four comets. The organic feature at 3.4 μm and an emission feature at 3.52 μm were detected in all comets except Okazaki-Levy-Rudenko. The spatial brightness profile of the 3.52-μm emission feature was measured for the first time. The observed spatial profile is consistent with that expected for uniform outflow from a central unresolved source and exhibits an optocenter which is displaced from that of the dust emission by 630 ± 90 km in the antisunward direction. We conclude that the molecule which gives rise to the emission is either directly sublimated from the cometary surface or is the dissociation product of a very short-lived parent species. The mixing ratio of the progenitor of the 3.52-μm feature relative to water varies by an order of magnitude in our sample of comets. The modeled infrared spectrum of CH 3 OH indicates that the observed spectra are consistent with the emission at 3.52 μm being due to methanol. Production rates of methanol are retrieved from a new fluorescence model, and the possible significance of variations in the mixing ratio is discussed in terms of cometary processing in the Oort cloud.