One month of near-IR imaging photometry of comet 9P/tempel 1

Abstract

We performed a month-long near-IR photometric and imaging observations of comet 9P/Tempel 1 in South Africa IRSF/SIRIUS. Our monitoring of comet brightness shows that a sustained comet activity and outbursts were not triggered by the impact. No color change was observed within 3σ 12 hours after the impact. This suggests the color change found by other IR observations by the impact may be a short-period phenomenum. Our observations of ejecta distribution detected large change in ejecta trajectory due to the solar radiation pressure. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.