Atlas of cometary lines obtained from a high-resolution spectrum of comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR)

Abstract

We present a new atlas of cometary lines obtained from a high-resolution high signal to noise spectrum of the bright long period comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR). This spectrum was obtained in 2004 at the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT), using the high-resolution optical spectrometer UVES. We describe the detection and identification processes of thousands of lines used to make this new atlas of cometary lines, before presenting the different chemical species identified in the spectrum. Finally, we focus on the many unidentified emission lines which are a challenge for modern astrophysics. We describe the method to try to identify the molecules at the origin of some unidentified bands, and the molecules that we have already investigated.