Stratospheric balloon observations of comets C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring), C/2014 E2 (Jacques), and Ceres

Abstract The Balloon Observation Platform for Planetary Science (BOPPS) was launched from Fort Sumner, New Mexico on September 26, 2014 and observed Oort Cloud comets from a stratospheric balloon observatory, using a 0.8 meter aperture telescope, a pointing system that achieved 2 O production rate from Comet Siding Spring was 6 × 10 27  s −1 , assuming optically thin emissions, which may be a lower limit if optical depth effects are important. A superheat dust population was discovered at Comet Jacques, producing a bright infrared continuum without evidence for line emission. Observations of Ceres from BOPPS and from IRTF, obtained the same night, did not find evidence for a strong water vapor emission near 2.7 µm and led to an approximate upper limit 27  s −1 for water emission from Ceres.