A Search For 15NH2 Emission Lines In Comets

The determination of nitrogen isotopic ratios in solar system objects is important for a good understanding of their origin. The measurements of [SUB]14[/SUB]N/[SUB]15[/SUB]N isotopic ratio done so far in various solar system objects and molecules have revealed a great diversity (from 50 to 441), all of them, except Jupiter, being enriched in [SUB]15[/SUB]N compared to the protosolar nebula. Different explanations have been proposed to explain this enrichement. One of them suggests that these differences reflect the different interstellar N reservoirs from which N-bearing molecules are originating (Hily-Blant et al., 2013). These authors, from observations of H[SUB]13[/SUB]CN and HC[SUB]15[/SUB]N in two prestellar cores, suggest that the molecules carrying the nitrile- (-CN) functional group would be more enriched in [SUB]15[/SUB]N than the molecules carrying the amine (-NH) functional group. Comets are interesting targets to test this theory because they contain both HCN and NH[SUP]3[/SUP] molecules. So far the [SUB]14[/SUB]N/[SUB]15[/SUB]N ratio has only been measured in CN (Arpigny et al., 2003; Manfroid et al., 2009) and HCN (Bockelée-Morvan et al., 2005, 2008) in comets, leading for both species to [SUB]14[/SUB]N/[SUB]15[/SUB]N ≈ 150. Our work aimed at measuring the [SUB]14[/SUB]N/[SUB]15[/SUB]N isotopic ratio in NH[SUP]2[/SUP], which comes from NH[SUP]3[/SUP]. We have determined accurately the wavelengths of [SUB]15[/SUB]NH[SUP]2[/SUP] emission lines with the AILES beamline spectrometer at synchrotron SOLEIL by Fourier transform spectroscopy. The analysis of this spectrum has permitted to extract the [SUB]15[/SUB]NH[SUP]2[/SUP] emission lines wavelengths and to search for [SUB]15[/SUB]NH[SUP]2[/SUP] cometary emission lines. Thanks to a collection of spectra of 12 different comets obtained from 2002 to 2011 with the UVES spectrometer at the VLT ESO 8-m telescope (Manfroid et al., 2009), it has been possible to search for [SUB]15[/SUB]NH[SUP]2[/SUP] emission lines with a high sensitivity. We will present the results obtained from these data. Arpigny et al., Science, 301, 1522-1525, 2003 Bockelée-Morvan et al., in Comets II, ed. M. C. Festou, H. U. Keller, & H. A. Weaver (Tucson: Univ. Arizona Press), 391-423, 2005 Bockelée-Morvan et al., ApJ, 679, L49-L52, 2008 Hily-Blant et al., Icarus 223, 582-590, 2013 Manfroid et al., A&A, 503, 613-624, 2009