MASS LOSS RATE OF DUST IN COMET C/LINEAR (1999 S4) AFTER ITS DISINTEGRATION

摘要

A sequence of observations of comet C/LINEAR (1999 S4) was obtained with the2m RCC telescope of the National Astronomical Observatory (NAO) ―Rozhen, Bulgaria,several days after the comet disintegrated in late July 2000. The Focal Reducer Rozhen was used with a set of narrow-band interference filters, centered at two clean spectral windows, sampling the cometary continuum at 443 nm and 684 nm. From the variations of the surface brightness with time, and assuming the function of particle size distribution (PSD) to be described by a power law, we have estimated the power index of this function. We use the continuum images, calibrated in fluxes, to calculate the total geometrical cross-section of the scattering area of all dust particles. Using the particle size distribution, the scattering area, and the increasing size of the smallest particles remained in the tail, we estimate the decreasing number of dust particles after the disintegration of the comet. This number is used together with the PSD to calculate the mass loss rate during the same period.