Sublimating components in the coma of comet C/2000 WM1 (LINEAR)

Abstract

Comet C/2000 WM1 (LINEAR) was observed at ESO at the time of its closest approach to the Earth at the beginning of December 2001 (geocentric distance: 0.32 AU). The aim of the observations was characterization of the solid component of the coma. Observations have been acquired over a wide spectral range, from the visible to the thermal infrared using three telescopes simultaneously. In this paper we discuss the possible discovery of two sublimating components in the coma, one of them with scattering properties very different from those of the "common" cometary dust. We provide evidence that these two components possibly originate from different kinds of organic material.