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| SMA observations of the Comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) |
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Image Credit: Chuang, Kuan and the SMA comet team
Top left: SMA image of the 234-GHz continuum emission of Comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR). The 1.3-mm continuum traces the dust distribution in the inner coma. The blue ellipse shown at the lower-left corner denotes the synthesized beam size. Top right: The integ
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| Besides analyzing the meteorites on Earth, ASIAA astronomers have been pointing our telescopes, SMA and TAOS, to study comets in distant space. We have carried out SMA observations of Comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) during its 2004 apparition at 1.3 millimeter. With an angular resolution of 3".2x1".8, which corresponds to a linear resolution of 1500x900 km when the comet was at a distance of 0.61 AU from the Earth, we successfully detected and imaged the 234-GHz thermal dust continuum, as well as the spectral emission of CS and methanol emission from the inner coma. This was the first comet observation ever conducted by the SMA. |
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