Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Aims. We investigate the brightening behavior of long-period comets as a function of dynamical age, defined by the original reciprocal semimajor axis, 1/a0. Our goal is to test long-standing claims about comet behavior using a large number of available measurements. Methods. We used a large set of photometric observations to compute and analyze global and local brightening curves for 272 long-period comets. We fit the observed magnitudes with a linear model in log heliocentric distance, from which we derived brightening parameters for each comet. We categorized the sample into dynamically new, intermediate, and old comets, and we compared their brightening behavior. We also examined the relationships between dynamical age and other orbital and physical parameters. Results. Dynamically new comets are seen to brighten more slowly than old comets, particularly within 3 au from the Sun. The brightening rate of new comets appears to vary with heliocentric distance. New comets are intrinsically brighter than old comets and exhibit a tighter correlation between brightening parameters.
Authors: P. Lacerda, A. Guilbert-Lepoutre, R. Kokotanekova, L. Inno, E. Mazzotta Epifani, C. Snodgrass
Institutions: Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences, Instituto Pedro Nunes, University of Coimbra, Lyon 1 Université, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon : Terre, Planètes et Environnement, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Astronomy and National Astronomical Observatory, International Space Science Institute, Parthenope University of Naples, Astronomical Observatory of Rome, National Institute for Astrophysics, University of Edinburgh
Language: English
Topic: Astro and Planetary Science
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6940766344
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