Monitoring Observations of the Jupiter-Family Comet 17P/Holmes during 2014 Perihelion Passage

TL;DR

This study monitored comet 17P/Holmes during its 2014 perihelion, revealing asymmetric dust activity changes, a significant decrease in active surface area, and evidence of rapid dust mantle development after its 2007 outburst.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the secular activity changes and dust production behavior of 17P/Holmes during its 2014 perihelion passage, highlighting rapid dust mantle formation.

Findings

Afrho increased near perihelion and dropped afterward

Active area of the nucleus decreased from 20-40% to 0.1-0.3%

Dust mantle thickness estimated at less than 10 cm

Abstract

We performed a monitoring observation of a Jupiter-Family comet, 17P/Holmes, during its 2014 perihelion passage to investigate its secular change in activity. The comet has drawn the attention of astronomers since its historic outburst in 2007, and this occasion was its first perihelion passage since then. We analyzed the obtained data using aperture photometry package and derived the Afrho parameter, a proxy for the dust production rate. We found that Afrho showed asymmetric properties with respect to the perihelion passage: it increased moderately from 100 cm at the heliocentric distance r_h=2.6-3.1 AU to a maximal value of 185 cm at r_h = 2.2 AU (near the perihelion) during the inbound orbit, while dropping rapidly to 35 cm at r_h = 3.2 AU during the outbound orbit. We applied a model for characterizing dust production rates as a function of r_h and found that the fractional active area of the cometary nucleus had dropped from 20%-40% in 2008-2011 (around the aphelion) to 0.1%-0.3% in 2014-2015 (around the perihelion). This result suggests that a dust mantle would have developed rapidly in only one orbital revolution around the sun. Although a minor eruption was observed on UT 2015 January 26 at r_h = 3.0 AU, the areas excavated by the 2007 outburst would be covered with a layer of dust (<~ 10 cm depth) which would be enough to insulate the subsurface ice and to keep the nucleus in a state of low activity.