Characterization of Water Outgassing in Main-Belt Comets 133P/Elst-Pizarro and 358P/PANSTARRS
National Aeronautics and Space Administration James Webb Space Telescope General Observer Program-Cycle 2
Non PSI Personnel: Michael S. P. Kelley (Co-Investigator, University of Maryland), Dennis Bodewits (Co-Investigator, Auburn University), John Noonan (Co-Investigator, Auburn University)
Project Description
Our GO project consists of JWST observations of two active main-belt comet targets (133P/Elst-Pizarro and 358P/PANSTARRS), with the goals of studying the volatiles in each object’s coma and following up on the first successful detection of gas around a small asteroidal object (238P/Read) which was observed by JWST in September 2022 (Kelley et al. 2023, Nature, in press; doi:10.1038/s41586-023-06152-y). The observations consist of NIRCam imaging (F200W and F277W, using SHALLOW4 dither patterns) and NIRSpec IFU spectroscopy (prism mode using NRSIRS2 dither patterns) with dedicated background observations. We request funding for the data reduction, analysis, interpretation, and publication. Specifically, we will:
1. Validate pipeline-generated data products and perform additional required data reduction.
2. Perform photometry and spatial analysis of the gas and dust coma in NIRCam data.
3. Perform spectral extraction using NIRSpec data and characterize the spectroscopic continuum.
4. Perform gas flux analysis and fluorescence modeling, and compute global production rates.
5. Interpret results in the context of the current state of knowledge of the main-belt comet population.
6. Publish results in peer-reviewed journals.
7. Present results at professional meetings.
