Ensemble properties of comets in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Michael Solontoi; Željko Ivezić; Mario Jurić; Andrew C. Becker; Lynne Jones; Andrew A. West; Steve Kent; Robert H. Lupton; Mark Claire; Gillian R. Knapp; Tom Quinn; James E. Gunn; Donald P. Schneider

doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2011.10.008

Ensemble properties of comets in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Michael Solontoi, Željko Ivezić, Mario Jurić, Andrew C. Becker, Lynne Jones, Andrew A. West, Steve Kent, Robert H. Lupton, Mark Claire, Gillian R. Knapp, Tom Quinn, James E. Gunn, Donald P. Schneider

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Abstract

We present the ensemble properties of 31 comets (27 resolved and 4 unresolved) observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). This sample of comets represents about 1 comet per 10million SDSS photometric objects. Five-band (u,g,r,i,z) photometry is used to determine the comets' colors, sizes, surface brightness profiles, and rates of dust production in terms of the Afρ formalism. We find that the cumulative luminosity function for the Jupiter Family Comets in our sample is well fit by a power law of the form N(<H)∝10 ^{(0.49±0.05)H} for H<18, with evidence of a much shallower fit N(<H)∝10 ^{(0.19±0.03)H} for the faint (14.5<H<18) comets. The resolved comets show an extremely narrow distribution of colors (0.57±0.05 in g-r for example), which are statistically indistinguishable from that of the Jupiter Trojans. Further, there is no evidence of correlation between color and physical, dynamical, or observational parameters for the observed comets.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	571-584
Number of pages	14
Journal	Icarus
Volume	218
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2011.10.008
State	Published - Mar 2012

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Astronomy and Astrophysics
Space and Planetary Science

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10.1016/j.icarus.2011.10.008

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@article{73923cc68db541c4ab03332eb74e1218,

title = "Ensemble properties of comets in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey",

abstract = "We present the ensemble properties of 31 comets (27 resolved and 4 unresolved) observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). This sample of comets represents about 1 comet per 10million SDSS photometric objects. Five-band (u,g,r,i,z) photometry is used to determine the comets' colors, sizes, surface brightness profiles, and rates of dust production in terms of the Afρ formalism. We find that the cumulative luminosity function for the Jupiter Family Comets in our sample is well fit by a power law of the form N((0.49±0.05)H for H<18, with evidence of a much shallower fit N((0.19±0.03)H for the faint (14.5",

author = "Michael Solontoi and {\v Z}eljko Ivezi{\'c} and Mario Juri{\'c} and Becker, {Andrew C.} and Lynne Jones and West, {Andrew A.} and Steve Kent and Lupton, {Robert H.} and Mark Claire and Knapp, {Gillian R.} and Tom Quinn and Gunn, {James E.} and Schneider, {Donald P.}",

note = "Funding Information: Funding for the SDSS and SDSS-II has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Japanese Monbukagakusho, the Max Planck Society, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England. The SDSS Web Site is http://www.sdss.org/ . Funding Information: Z.I. acknowledges support by NSF Grant AST-0551161 to LSST for design and development activity, and by the Croatian National Science Foundation Grant O-1548-2009 . Funding Information: M.S. would like to acknowledge support from the Brinson Foundation grant in aid of Astrophysics Research to the Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum. Funding Information: M.J. wishes to acknowledge the support for this work provided by NASA through Hubble Fellowship Grant #HF-51255.01-A awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under Contract NAS 5-26555. Funding Information: D.P.S. was supported in part by National Science Foundation Grant AST 06-07634 ",

year = "2012",

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doi = "10.1016/j.icarus.2011.10.008",

language = "English (US)",

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T1 - Ensemble properties of comets in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

AU - Solontoi, Michael

AU - Ivezić, Željko

AU - Jurić, Mario

AU - Becker, Andrew C.

AU - Jones, Lynne

AU - West, Andrew A.

AU - Kent, Steve

AU - Lupton, Robert H.

AU - Claire, Mark

AU - Knapp, Gillian R.

AU - Quinn, Tom

AU - Gunn, James E.

AU - Schneider, Donald P.

N1 - Funding Information: Funding for the SDSS and SDSS-II has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Japanese Monbukagakusho, the Max Planck Society, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England. The SDSS Web Site is http://www.sdss.org/ . Funding Information: Z.I. acknowledges support by NSF Grant AST-0551161 to LSST for design and development activity, and by the Croatian National Science Foundation Grant O-1548-2009 . Funding Information: M.S. would like to acknowledge support from the Brinson Foundation grant in aid of Astrophysics Research to the Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum. Funding Information: M.J. wishes to acknowledge the support for this work provided by NASA through Hubble Fellowship Grant #HF-51255.01-A awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under Contract NAS 5-26555. Funding Information: D.P.S. was supported in part by National Science Foundation Grant AST 06-07634

PY - 2012/3

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N2 - We present the ensemble properties of 31 comets (27 resolved and 4 unresolved) observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). This sample of comets represents about 1 comet per 10million SDSS photometric objects. Five-band (u,g,r,i,z) photometry is used to determine the comets' colors, sizes, surface brightness profiles, and rates of dust production in terms of the Afρ formalism. We find that the cumulative luminosity function for the Jupiter Family Comets in our sample is well fit by a power law of the form N((0.49±0.05)H for H<18, with evidence of a much shallower fit N((0.19±0.03)H for the faint (14.5

AB - We present the ensemble properties of 31 comets (27 resolved and 4 unresolved) observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). This sample of comets represents about 1 comet per 10million SDSS photometric objects. Five-band (u,g,r,i,z) photometry is used to determine the comets' colors, sizes, surface brightness profiles, and rates of dust production in terms of the Afρ formalism. We find that the cumulative luminosity function for the Jupiter Family Comets in our sample is well fit by a power law of the form N((0.49±0.05)H for H<18, with evidence of a much shallower fit N((0.19±0.03)H for the faint (14.5

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Ensemble properties of comets in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

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