Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 (SW3) Bulletin #9

May 12, 2006

Michael L. Sitko, University of Cincinnati & Space Science Institute

The press release of the MIPS mosaic occurred late on May 10. The image, by team members

William Reach (JPL), Mike Kelley (U MN), Mark Sykes (PSI), Carey Lisse (APL/JHU), and Masateru (Seoul National U/Korea) was obtained at a wavelength of 24 microns, and shows not only a number of comet fragments, but also the trail of large dust particles spread along the cometary orbit. For more information and to download images in various sizes/formats, go to: http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2006-13/ssc2006-13a.shtml

The Astronomy Picture of the Day for May 11 is a nice shot of SW3-C passing near the Ring Nebula in Lyrae, obtained by Stefan Seip & Steffen Bruckner. The image is a composite of two obtained on May 8 – one tracking the comet, and the other at the sidereal rate to produce untrailed stars/nebulae. A larger version of the image can be found at the APOD site at http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html and clicking on the image, or by going directly to http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0605/c73pM57_seip_f.jpg

Dave Schleicher (Lowell Observatory) reported measurements of OH, CN, C₂, and dust on May 9 & 10. The recent outburst of B increased production rates by about 10x compared to 2 weeks ago, making them about 3x those of component C.

For more information, contact:

Mike Sitko

Dept. of Physics, University of Cincinnati sitko@physics.uc.edu Phone: 513.556.0642

& Space Science Institute, Boulder, CO sitko@spacescience.org