Characterization of Water Outgassing in Main-Belt Comets 133P/Elst-Pizarro and 457P/Lemmon-PANSTARRS
National Aeronautics and Space Administration James Webb Space Telescope General Observer Program-Cycle 2
Subaward to PSI from Space Telescope Science Institute
Non PSI Personnel: John Noonan (Co-Investigator, Auburn University), Dennis Bodewitz (Co-Investigator, Auburn University), Michael Kelley (Co-Investigator, University of Maryland)
Project Description
Our GO project consists of JWST observations of two active main-belt comet targets (133P/Elst-Pizarro and 457P/Lemmon-PANSTARRS), with the goals of studying the volatiles in each object’s coma and following up on the first successful detection of gas from a main-belt comet (238P/Read), which was observed by JWST in September 2022 (Kelley et al. 2023, Nature, 619, 720), as well as Cycle 2 observations of 133P and main-belt comet 358P/PANSTARRS. 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:
- Validate pipeline-generated data products and perform additional required data reduction.
- Perform photometry and morphological analysis of the gas and dust coma in NIRCam data.
- Perform spectral extraction using NIRSpec data and characterize the spectroscopic continuum.
- Determine gas fluxes from NIRSpec data.
- Perform fluorescence modeling to produce column density maps and global production rates.
- Acquire and analyze optical data from ground-based facilities to provide context for JWST results
- Interpret results in the context of the current state of knowledge of the main-belt comet population
- Publish results in peer-reviewed journals, and present results at professional meetings.
