SOFIA Observations of Comet Pan-STARRS

Artist’s impression

The short and long wavelength cameras on the FORCAST instrument were used to study light emitting from Comet C/2012 K1 (also called Pan-STARRS). The observations focused on the coma, the gas and dust that form around a comet’s nucleus as it is heated by the sun. The data were used to deduce the size and composition of the dust grains and to identify and categorize their thermal properties.

These observations revealed weak silicate emission features from the comet, rather than the anticipated strong silicate features found in some prior Oort Cloud comet observations, including those of Comet Hale-Bopp and studies conducted with the Spitzer Space Telescope.

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