Polarimetric and Spectroscopic Observations of a Dynamically New Comet C/2012 J1 (Catalina)

TL;DR

This study presents polarimetric and spectroscopic observations of comet C/2012 J1 (Catalina), revealing its polarization, molecular emissions, and gas production rate at 3.17 AU from the Sun.

Contribution

First detailed polarimetric and spectral analysis of a dynamically new comet at this distance, including polarization mapping and gas production estimation.

Findings

Average linear polarization about -2%

Detection of CN molecule emission

Gas production rate of 3.7×10^{23} molecules/sec

Abstract

We present the analysis of the polarimetric and spectral data obtained for the dynamically new comet C/2012\,J1 (Catalina) when it was at a distance of 3.17~AU from the Sun. The observations were made at the prime focus of the 6-m BTA telescope using the SCORPIO-2 focal reducer. The map of the distribution of linear polarization in the cometary coma was constructed. The calculated value of linear polarization was on average about $-2\%$. Spectral analysis of the cometary coma allowed us to detect the emission of the CN molecule in the (0--0) band. The gas production rate was derived using the Haser model and amounted to $3.7\times10^{23}$~molecules per second.