Image Details
Caption: Figure 5.
Dependence of the photometric residuals on atmospheric seeing for the two photometric apertures used in the analysis. Panel (a) shows the 4-pixel aperture (6﹩\mathop{.}\limits^{^{\prime\prime} }﹩2), while panel (b) shows the 30-pixel aperture (42﹩\mathop{.}\limits^{^{\prime\prime} }﹩2). In each panel, the residual magnitudes are plotted as a function of the measured seeing. The dashed horizontal line marks zero residual. No significant correlation is observed between residual magnitude and seeing for either aperture, indicating that variations in atmospheric image quality do not account for the detected photometric modulation. The absence of a systematic trend supports the interpretation that the observed periodic signal is intrinsic to the cometary coma and jet activity rather than an artifact of seeing fluctuations.
© 2026. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.