| Name: | Aravind K |
| Affiliation: | Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad |
| Conference ID : | ASI2023_654 |
| Title : | The peculiar Comet C/2019 L3 observed through Indian and Belgian telescope facilities |
| Authors : | Aravind.K(1), Mathieu Vander Donckt(2), Emmanuel Jehin(2), Shashikiran Ganesh(1)
(1)Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad 380009, India
(2)Univerisity of Liege, Liege 4000, Belgium |
| Mode of Presentation: | Oral |
| Abstract Category : | Sun and the Solar System |
| Abstract : | Comets are the primordial remenants of our Solar system. They contain the pristine volatile materials that were present in the proto-Solar nebula. Compared to short-period comets, the long-period comets would have made only very few or no passages into the inner Solar system. Hence, they present a better opportunity to analyse the pristine materials as they would have undergone minimal internal and external evolution. Meanwhile, long-term observation of these comets is essential to understand their activity better as these bodies cross perihelion. There is an ongoing long-term observational analysis, using both long slit spectroscopy and narrow band imaging, of a long-period comet, C/2019 L3 (ATLAS), using the HFOSC instrument on the 2 m HCT as well as the TRAPPIST - NORTH/SOUTH telescopes respectively, as part of the INDO-BELGIAN collaboration. Comet C/2019 L3 is a hyperbolic comet which had perihelion on 2022-Jan-09 at a distance of 3.55 AU. Despite its sizeable heliocentric distance at perihelion compared to other comets, C/2019 L3 was very active, dominated by dust activity. This peculiar comet was observed starting in November 2021 and is still being observed from both facilities based on availability as we prepare this document. For a comet with an unusually large perihelion distance to be still active at a distance of 4.55 AU is surprising. This work will present the long-term activity observed in the comet based on the data obtained from both Indian and Belgian telescopes. It will also emphasise the advantage of combining spectroscopic and narrow-band imaging studies in the field of cometary science. |
