[BAA Comets] Observers J-F Soulier and JJ Gonzalez capture Comet 29P/S-W1 undergoing a strong outburst

[Richard Miles]

Thanks Nick.

I have now updated the web article.

Cheers,
Richard

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nick James" <ndj at nickdjames.com>
To: "BAA Comets discussion list" <comets-disc at lists.britastro.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2017 5:22 AM
Subject: Re: [BAA Comets] Observers J-F Soulier and JJ Gonzalez capture
Comet 29P/S-W1 undergoing a strong outburst


> Richard,
>
> That is an excellent piece of work and the BAA news item is a very
> interesting read. Dedicating equipment to monitoring 29P has really paid
> off.
>
> Nick.
>
> On 11/07/2017 00:21, Richard Miles wrote:
>> For the very first time the onset and development of an outburst of
>> enigmatic comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann has been captured thanks to
>> independent observations by Jean-François Soulier and Juan Jose Gonzalez
>> Diaz on 2017 July 02. Details can be found on the BAA webpage:
>>
>> https://www.britastro.org/node/10684
>>
>> That BOTH observers were carrying out a time-series of CCD images at the
>> SAME time is an amazing coincidence especially when it is realised that
>> this is only the SECOND such strong outburst so far during 2017 and that
>> such an event is more or less over and done within a time-window of about
>> one hour!
>>
>> 29P was discovered 90 years ago and at last we have some hard data
>> showing the onset of an outburst event. The beginning of the outburst is
>> very sudden and, as such, it is clearly a singular event reminiscent of a
>> cryovolcanic eruption at the nucleus. Analysis of the form of the rising
>> lightcurve should provide some valuable insight into this possibility.
>>
>> The actual event was also the third very significant outburst within less
>> than 10 days and it is likely that the all three are inter-related in
>> some way, e.g. the first event triggered the second, which triggered the
>> third. Since the July 2nd event, a fourth outburst has also taken place
>> just 3.5 days later! See Figure 3 at the above URL to see an example of
>> the photometric lightcurve these past 45 days.
>>
>> Extremely well done Jean-François and Juanjo.
>>
>> Congratulations,
>> Richard Miles
>> BAA
>>
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