CO and CO2 Productions Rates of Comets Observed by NEOWISE within Year 1 of the Reactivated Mission

Abstract

We report on the observed fluxes of the comets detected by NEOWISE during the first year of operations after the spacecraft’s reactivation. The sample included 57 comets. Of the comets detected, 30 were short-period comets (27 Jupiter-family comets, 1 Centaur, 2 Halley-type comets), and 27 were long-period comets. From the measured fluxes in the two NEOWISE bands, proxies for the gas production and coma dust are derived. We find a relationship between heliocentric distance, perihelion distance, and the gas-to-dust proxy fractions.

Keywords

• Comets
• Short period comets
• Long period comets
• Infrared astronomy