9625369 Womack The ability to observe and obtain data on comets provides a unique opportunity to study the formation of the solar system, since they are the best-preserved specimens of the gas and grains of the protosolar nebula cloud out of which the solar system was formed. Investigating the chemical composition of comets is a powerful way to gain insight into the different populations of comets and the outer planetesimals. This research project has three main goals: 1) To investigate how the comae of comets, whose formation are driven by Carbon Monoxide (CO)-ice sublimation, differ from those whose formation is driven by water-ice sublimation, 2) To search for chemical composition differences between short-period comets and giant planetesimals, which share a common origin in the Kuiper Disk in our Solar system, and 3) To investigate the origin of cometary CO. Carbon monoxide sublimation rates will be obtained by analyzing millimeter/submillimeter-wavelength spectroscopy observations of three comets experiencing C0-ice, but not water-ice, sublimation. Observations of five comets, whose formation of their comae are driven primarily by water-ice sublimation, will also be made. These data from the observations will be used to test models of CO-ice sublimation that occurs directly from the nucleus and to probe variations between short-period comets and Kuiper Disk objects. Since CO may derive from photolysis of methanol and formaldehyde, millimeter/submillmeter wavelength spectra of H2CO and CH3OH abundances will be obtained for several productive comets to search for correlations between CO and these candidate precursor molecules. Visible and near-IR wavelength imaging will be performed on the comae in conjunction with spectroscopy to test models of CO production from the dust and to monitor cometary outbursts. Pedagogical research indicates that students often learn much more from collaborative learning, rather than from a solely independent effort. A group of 3-5 students will work together as an observing team that will be responsible for implementing an observing program of photometric imaging using a 16-inch telescope, on the Erie, Pennsylvania campus, that is equipped with a Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) detector. The observing team will have two goals: 1) To track comets over several months to search for outburst activity and 2) To obtain simultaneous images of a comet when millimeter/submillimeter wavelength spectroscopy is being carried out at another telescope in another part of the country. ***
