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Astrophysics and Astronomy

University of Missouri, St. Louis

2013

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Physics

The Unexpectedly Bright Comet C/2012 F6 (Lemmon) Unveiled At Near-Infrared Wavelengths, Lucas Paganini, Michael Disanti, Michael Mumma, Geronimo Villanueva, Boncho Bonev, Jacqueline Keane, Erika Gibb, Hermann Boehnhardt, Karen Meech Dec 2013

The Unexpectedly Bright Comet C/2012 F6 (Lemmon) Unveiled At Near-Infrared Wavelengths, Lucas Paganini, Michael Disanti, Michael Mumma, Geronimo Villanueva, Boncho Bonev, Jacqueline Keane, Erika Gibb, Hermann Boehnhardt, Karen Meech

Physics Faculty Works

We acquired near-infrared spectra of the Oort cloud comet C/2012 F6 (Lemmon) at three different heliocentric distances (R h) during the comet's 2013 perihelion passage, providing a comprehensive measure of the outgassing behavior of parent volatiles and cosmogonic indicators. Our observations were performed pre-perihelion at R h = 1.2 AU with CRIRES (on 2013 February 2 and 4), and post-perihelion at R h = 0.75 AU with CSHELL (on March 31 and April 1) and R h = 1.74 AU with NIRSPEC (on June 20). We detected 10 volatile species (H2O, OH* prompt emission, C2H6, CH3OH, H2CO, HCN, CO, CH4, …


Detection Of Ch4 In The Gv Tau N Protoplanetary Disk, David Horne, Erika Gibb Oct 2013

Detection Of Ch4 In The Gv Tau N Protoplanetary Disk, David Horne, Erika Gibb

Physics Faculty Works

T Tauri stars are low mass young stars that may serve as analogs to the early solar system. Observations of organic molecules in the protoplanetary disks surrounding T Tauri stars are important for characterizing the chemical and physical processes that lead to planet formation. Searches for undetected molecules, particularly in the inner, planet forming regions of these disks are important for testing protoplanetary disk chemical models and for understanding the evolution of volatiles through the star and planet formation process. We used NIRSPEC on Keck 2 to perform a high resolution (λ/Δλ ~ 25,000) L-band survey of T Tauri star …


Ice And Dust In The Prestellar Dark Cloud Lynds 183: Preplanetary Matter At The Lowest Temperatures, David Horne, D. Whittet, C Poteet, J. Chiar, L. Paganini, V Bajaj, S. Shenoy, A Adamson Aug 2013

Ice And Dust In The Prestellar Dark Cloud Lynds 183: Preplanetary Matter At The Lowest Temperatures, David Horne, D. Whittet, C Poteet, J. Chiar, L. Paganini, V Bajaj, S. Shenoy, A Adamson

Physics Faculty Works

Dust grains are nucleation centers and catalysts for the growth of icy mantles in quiescent interstellar clouds, the products of which may accumulate into preplanetary matter when new stars and solar systems form within the clouds. In this paper, we present the first spectroscopic detections of silicate dust and the molecular ices H2O, CO, and CO2 in the vicinity of the prestellar core L183 (L134N). An infrared photometric survey of the cloud was used to identify reddened background stars, and we present spectra covering solid-state absorption features in the wavelength range 2-20 μm for nine of them. The mean composition …


Spectro-Astrometry Of Water In Dr Tauri, Logan Brown, Matthew Troutman, Erika Gibb May 2013

Spectro-Astrometry Of Water In Dr Tauri, Logan Brown, Matthew Troutman, Erika Gibb

Physics Faculty Works

We present high-resolution, near-infrared spectro-astrometric (SA) data for the T Tauri star DR Tau using NIRSPEC at the Keck II telescope. Spectro-astrometry obtains sub-seeing spatial information from emission lines originating in a non-point source object, such as a circumstellar disk. We report the first detection of water SA signatures in a protoplanetary disk. Three water features near 3 μm were averaged together to produce the total signal analyzed. Using a disk model, we constrained the position angle of the disk (~140°), the inclination of the disk (~13°), and the emitting region of the emission lines (~0.056-0.38 AU).