An infrared search for formaldehyde in several comets

Abstract

Models which assume either a parent or a distributed source for H2CO are presently used to retrieve 3-sigma upper limits to that species' production rate from a 3.55-3.64 micron search for cometary IR emission from the nu1 and nu5 bands of formaldehyde. A parent-source H2CO production rate relative to water of 0.15-0.80 percent is obtained, together with a distributed source production rate of 1.7-5.8 percent.