Comet C/2017 E4 composition with iSHELL at NASA/IRTF

We detected many cometary emission lines in the range (2.8-5.3) {mu}m, in four customized instrument settings (L1-c, L3, Lp1-c, and M1) of iSHELL - the new near-IR high-resolution immersion echelle spectrograph at NASA/IRTF (Maunakea, Hawaii). We identified 12 molecular species: nine primary volatiles (H_2_O, HCN, NH_3_, CO, C_2_H_2_, C_2_H_6_, CH_4_, CH_3_OH, H_2_CO) and three product species (CN, NH_2_, OH).

We detected 85 H_2_O emission lines from 12 water vibrational bands across L1-c and M1 settings. The many detected water emission lines enabled retrieval of accurate measures for ortho- and para-H_2_O independently, thereby reducing systematic uncertainty in the derived ortho-para ratio and nuclear spin temperature. Excitation analyses and emission profile analyses were performed for all species, and molecular abundance ratios relative to water are compared with values found for other Oort Cloud comets in our infrared database.