skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Search for: All records

Creators/Authors contains: "Remijan, A_J"

Note: When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
What is a DOI Number?

Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.

  1. Abstract 46P/Wirtanen is a Jupiter-family comet, probably originating from the solar system’s Kuiper Belt, that now resides on a 5.4 yr elliptical orbit. During its 2018 apparition, comet 46P passed unusually close to the Earth (within 0.08 au), presenting an outstanding opportunity for close-up observations of its inner coma. Here we present observations of HCN, H13CN, and HC15N emission from 46P using the Atacama Compact Array. The data were analyzed using the SUBLIME non-LTE radiative transfer code to derive12C/13C and14N/15N ratios. The HCN/H13CN ratio is found to be consistent with a lack of significant13C fractionation, whereas the HCN/HC15N ratio of 68 ± 27 (using our most conservative 1σuncertainties), indicates a strong enhancement in15N compared with the solar and terrestrial values. The observed14N/15N ratio is also significantly lower than the values of ∼140 found in previous comets, implying a strong15N enrichment in 46P’s HCN. This indicates that the nitrogen in Jupiter-family comets could reach larger isotopic enrichments than previously thought, with implications for the diversity of14N/15N ratios imprinted into icy bodies at the birth of the solar system. 
    more » « less