Comets at radio wavelengths

TL;DR

This paper reviews radio wavelength observations of comets, highlighting how these studies reveal their composition and water production rates, utilizing various telescopes and space instruments over time.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive historical overview of radio comet observations, emphasizing recent data from multiple advanced radio and space telescopes.

Findings

Detection of water and other molecules in cometary ices.

Measurement of water production rates via OH radical emissions.

Insights into comet composition and sublimation processes.

Abstract

Comets are considered as the most primitive objects in the Solar System. Their composition provides information on the composition of the primitive solar nebula, 4.6 Gyr ago. The radio domain is a privileged tool to study the composition of cometary ices. Observations of the OH radical at 18 cm wavelength allow us to measure the water production rate. A wealth of molecules (and some of their isotopologues) coming from the sublimation of ices in the nucleus have been identified by observations in the millimetre and submillimetre domains. We present an historical review on radio observations of comets, focusing on the results from our group, and including recent observations with the Nan\c{c}ay radio telescope, the IRAM antennas, the Odin satellite, the Herschel space observatory, ALMA, and the MIRO instrument aboard the Rosetta space probe.