Polarimetric studies of Comet C/2009 P1 (Garradd)

Abstract

We present the optical imaging polarimetric observations of comet C/2009 P1(Garradd) at three different phase angles e.g., 28.2${}^{\circ }$, 28.1${}^{\circ }$ and 21.6${}^{\circ }$. The observations were carried out using IUCAA Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera mounted on Cassegrain focus of the 2-m Telescope of IGO, IUCAA, Pune in R${}_{comet}$, R photometric bands, on 21 and 22 March 2012 and ARIES Imaging Polarimeter mounted on Cassegrain focus of the 1.04-m Sampurnanand Telescope of ARIES, Nainital in R photometric band, on 23 May 2012. We show the presence of a jet activity in the rotational gradient treated image of comet Garradd at phase angle 28.1${}^{\circ }$. These jets are mainly oriented towards the Sun and extended up to $\sim$ 5100 km from the cometary photocenter. The antisolar extension of jet seems to be fainter, which is extended up to $\sim$ 1800 km. It is found that the comet Garradd shows negative polarization at phase angle 21.6${}^{\circ }$. The degree of polarization derived for Garradd is in good agreement with other comets at nearly similar phase angles e.g., comets 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, 22P/Kopff, 1P/Halley, C/1990 K1 (Levy), 4P/Faye, and C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) at phase angle $\sim$ 28${}^{\circ }$, and 47P/Ashbrook-Jackson at phase angle $\sim$ 21.6${}^{\circ }$, respectively. It is also found that the degree of polarization of dusty coma of comet Garradd at phase angle $\sim$ 28${}^{\circ }$ is high but, not as high as in the case of comet Hale-Bopp.

(Accepted in MNRAS on September 26, 2013) 8 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables

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