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AN INVESTIGATION OF THE LIGHT CURVE
OF DEEP IMPACT TARGET COMET
VITALY FILONENKO
∗
and KLIM CHURYUMOV
Astronomical Institute of V.N.Karazin Kharkov National University
Sumskaja str., 35, Kharkov-22, 61022, Ukraine
∗
filonenko@astron.kharkov.ua
The light curves of integrated visual brightness of the periodic comet
9P/Tempel during 1972, 1983, 1994, and 2005 appearances were constructed
and studied. The values of photometrical parameters
H
0
,
n
,and
H
10
were com-
puted. A secular fading of this comet was studied. The photometrical peculiar-
ities of comet and long-term evolution of comet's activity probably will change
after impact. Therefore, the results, which are presented in this manuscript,
are important.
1. Introduction
The mission Deep Impact was successfully finished. Probably the photomet-
rical behavior and a photometrical evolution of target comet will change
as a consequence of the artificial impact to the comet nucleus. Therefore,
the study of photometrical peculiarities and brightness behavior of target
comet in all comet's observed returns is of interest. The results of these
investigations are presented here.
2. Observations and Magnitude Analysis
To study the photometrical behavior of comet 9P/Tempel 1, we used more
than 1,000 visual estimations of its integrated brightness collected from
archives of the International Comet Quarterly, of the Comet Section of
British Astronomical Association and from some Internet sources.
All estimations have been corrected to the standard telescope's
aperture.
1
The brightness behavior of comets with respect to heliocentric distance
(light curves) is normally represented by equation
m
∆
=
H
0
+2
.
5
n
log
r,
(1)
∗
Corresponding author.
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