Forbidden oxygen lines at various nucleocentric distances in comets

Abstract

Aims. We study the formation of the [OI] lines -that is, 5577.339 (the green line), 6300.304 and 6363.776 (the two red lines) -in the coma of comets and determine the parent species of the oxygen atoms using the ratio of the green-to-red-doublet emission intensity, I 5577 /(I 6300 + I 6364 ), (hereafter the G/R ratio) and the line velocity widths. Methods. We acquired high-resolution spectroscopic observations at the ESO Very Large Telescope of comets C/2002 T7 (LINEAR), 73P-C/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, 8P/Tuttle, and 103P/Hartley 2 when they were close to Earth (<0.6 au). Using the observed spectra, which have a high spatial resolution (<60 km/pixel), we determined the intensities and widths of the three [OI] lines. We spatially extracted the spectra to achieve the best possible resolution of about 1-2 , that is, nucleocentric projected distances of 100 to 400 km depending on the geocentric distance of the comet. We decontaminated the [OI] green line from C 2 lines blends that we identified. Results. The observed G/R ratio in all four comets varies as a function of nucleocentric projected distance (between 0.25 to 0.05 within 1000 km). This is mainly due to the collisional quenching of O( 1 S) and O( 1 D) by water molecules in the inner coma. The observed green emission line width is about 2.5 km s -1 and decreases as the distance from the nucleus increases, which can be explained by the varying contribution of CO 2 to the O( 1 S) production in the innermost coma. The photodissociation of CO 2 molecules seem to produce O( 1 S) closer to the nucleus, while the water molecule forms all the O( 1 S) and O( 1 D) atoms beyond 10 3 km. Thus we conclude that the main parent species producing O( 1 S) and O( 1 D) in the inner coma is not always the same. The observations have been interpreted in the framework of the previously described coupled-chemistry-emission model, and the upper limits of the relative abundances of CO 2 were derived from the observed G/R ratios. Measuring the [OI] lines might provide a new way to determine the CO 2 relative abundance in comets.