Snowy Owl
Retired in 2010, In Memoriam
http://agile.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/astroe/prop_tools/swg_abs/050.html
Cometary X-ray emission is likely the result of charge exchange interactions between the highly charged solar wind and neutral material ablated from the nucleus. Recent measurements using Chandra coupled with precise laboratory measurements at EBIT lend support for this hypothesis. In fact we have successfully deconvolved the Chandra/ACIS observation of comet C/Linear using direct observations of charge exchanging plasmas at EBIT using a flight spare XRS detector system. Here, we propose to observe a magnitude 1 comet, 73P/SW 3, the brightest comet of the decade during May 2006 within only 0.08 AU of the earth using the XIS1 (BI) instrument on Suzaku. The exceptional low energy response of the XIS will allow us to unambiguously identify the x-ray emission mechanism in comets.
Cometary X-ray emission is likely the result of charge exchange interactions between the highly charged solar wind and neutral material ablated from the nucleus. Recent measurements using Chandra coupled with precise laboratory measurements at EBIT lend support for this hypothesis. In fact we have successfully deconvolved the Chandra/ACIS observation of comet C/Linear using direct observations of charge exchanging plasmas at EBIT using a flight spare XRS detector system. Here, we propose to observe a magnitude 1 comet, 73P/SW 3, the brightest comet of the decade during May 2006 within only 0.08 AU of the earth using the XIS1 (BI) instrument on Suzaku. The exceptional low energy response of the XIS will allow us to unambiguously identify the x-ray emission mechanism in comets.