Near-UV OH Prompt Emission in the Innermost Coma of 103P/Hartley 2

TL;DR

This study presents the first direct imaging of Near-UV prompt emission of OH in a comet's innermost coma, revealing localized water ice enrichment and jet structures, and suggesting a new method to trace water in comets.

Contribution

It introduces the first direct imaging of Near-UV OH prompt emission in a comet's coma, linking it to water dissociation processes and proposing a dedicated filter for water detection.

Findings

Detection of a blue enhancement indicating water ice enrichment.

Observation of a radial jet extending up to 12 km from the nucleus.

Identification of excess OH emission attributable to prompt emission from water photodissociation.

Abstract

The Deep Impact spacecraft fly-by of comet 103P/Hartley 2 occurred on 2010 November 4, one week after perihelion with a closest approach (CA) distance of about 700 km. We used narrowband images obtained by the Medium Resolution Imager (MRI) onboard the spacecraft to study the gas and dust in the innermost coma. We derived an overall dust reddening of 15\%/100 nm between 345 and 749 nm and identified a blue enhancement in the dust coma in the sunward direction within 5 km from the nucleus, which we interpret as a localized enrichment in water ice. OH column density maps show an anti-sunward enhancement throughout the encounter except for the highest resolution images, acquired at CA, where a radial jet becomes visible in the innermost coma, extending up to 12 km from the nucleus. The OH distribution in the inner coma is very different from that expected for a fragment species. Instead, it correlates well with the water vapor map derived by the HRI-IR instrument onboard Deep Impact \citep{AHearn2011}. Radial profiles of the OH column density and derived water production rates show an excess of OH emission during CA that cannot be explained with pure fluorescence. We attribute this excess to a prompt emission process where photodissociation of H$_2$O directly produces excited OH*($A^2\it{\Sigma}^+$) radicals. Our observations provide the first direct imaging of Near-UV prompt emission of OH. We therefore suggest the use of a dedicated filter centered at 318.8 nm to directly trace the water in the coma of comets.