Ortho-to-para abundance ratios of NH2in 26 comets: implications for the real meaning of OPRs

Abundance ratios of nuclear-spin isomers for cometary molecules having identical protons, such as water and ammonia, have been measured and discussed from the viewpoint that they are primordial characters in comet. In the case of ammonia, its ortho-to-para abundance ratio (OPR) is usually estimated from OPRs of NH2 because of difficulty in measuring OPR of ammonia directly. We report our survey for OPRs of NH2 in 26 comets. A weighted mean of ammonia OPRs for the comets is 1.12 ± 0.01 and no significant difference is found between the Oort Cloud comets and the Jupiter-family comets. These values correspond to ∼30 K as nuclear-spin temperatures. The OPRs of ammonia in comets probably reflect the physicochemical conditions in coma, rather than the conditions for the molecular formation or condensation in the pre-solar molecular cloud/the solar nebula, based on comparison of OPRs (and nuclear-spin temperatures) of ammonia with those of water, 14N/15N ratios in ammonia, and D/H ratios in water. The OPRs could be reset to a nuclear-spin weights ratio in solid phase and modified by interactions with protonated ions like H3O+, water clusters (H2O)n, ice grains, and paramagnetic impurities (such as O2 molecules and grains) in the inner coma gas. Relationship between the OPRs of ammonia and water is a clue to understanding the real meaning of the OPRs.