13 papers
A JWST Study of Stardust. I. Infrared Spectroscopy of Comet 81P/Wild 2 and Overall Composition
Nathan X. Roth, Stefanie N. Milam, Diane H. Wooden +11
We report observations of comet 81P/Wild 2, target of the Stardust sample return mission, on UT 2023 March 20 and 24 at a heliocentric distance () of 1.85 au using the NIRSpec…
Coma Physics of an Interstellar Object: JWST Spatial-Spectral Mapping of 3I/ATLAS
Nathan X. Roth, Martin A. Cordiner, Stefanie N. Milam +17
We report a survey of molecular emission from cometary volatiles using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) toward interstellar object 3I/ATLAS carried out on UT 2025 December 22…
Water D/H in 3I/ATLAS as a Probe of Formation Conditions in Another Planetary System
Luis E. Salazar Manzano, Teresa Paneque-Carreño, Martin A. Cordiner +17
Water reservoirs in the Solar System exhibit a deuterium enrichment that links back to the physical environment at the time of stellar birth. Gas-phase and ice-grain deuterium enri…
Monitoring Volatile Evolution in Disrupting Comet D/2021 A1 (Leonard) with NOEMA and APEX
Timothy N. Proudkii, Nathan X. Roth, Jérémie Boissier +8
We report a pre-perihelion survey of volatile emissions from comet D/2021 A1 (Leonard) with the Northern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA; UT 2021 Nov. 5, 21, and Dec. 1) and the A…
Perihelion observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS with the IRAM 30-m telescope
N. Biver, D. Bockelée-Morvan, R. Moreno +6
3I/ATLAS is the third interstellar comet identified as passing through the Solar System. Its high outgassing activity and favourable perihelion passage on October 29, 2025 UT provi…
An Enriched Methane D/H Ratio in the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS
Nathan X. Roth, Martin Cordiner, Stefanie Milam +15
Interstellar objects are interlopers from other planetary systems, and their volatile compositions provide a glimpse into planet formation around their host star. We present near-i…