On the Relationship of Chemical Abundances in the Nucleus to Those in the Coma |
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Authors: | Huebner W F Benkhoff J |
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Institution: | (1) Southwest Research Institute, P. O. Drawer 28510, San Antonio, TX 78228-0510, USA;(2) Institut für Planetenerkundung, DLR, Rudower Chaussee 5, D-12484 Berlin, Germany |
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Abstract: | One of the goals of comet research is the determination of the chemical composition of the nucleus because it provides us
with the clues about the composition of the nebula in which comet nuclei formed.
It is well accepted that photo-chemical reactions must be considered to establish the abundances of mother molecules in the
coma as they are released from the comet nucleus or from distributed dust sources in the coma. However, the mixing ratios
of mother molecules in the coma changes with heliocentric distance. To obtain the abundances in the nucleus relative to those
in the coma, we must turn our attention to the release rates of mother molecules from the nucleus as a function of heliocentric
distance. For this purpose, we assume three sources for the coma gas: the surface of the nucleus (releasing mostly water vapor),
the dust in the coma (the distributed source of several species released from dust particles), and the interior of the porous
nucleus (the source of many species more volatile than water). The species diffusing from the interior of the nucleus are
released by heat transported into the interior. Thus, the ratio of volatiles relative to water in the coma is a function of
the heliocentric distance and provides important information about the chemical composition and structure of the nucleus.
Our goal is to determine the abundance ratios of various mother molecules relative to water from many remote-sensing observations
of the coma as a function of heliocentric distance. Comet Hale-Bopp is ideal for this purpose since it has been observed using
instruments in many different wavelength regions over large ranges of heliocentric distances. The ratios of release rates
of species into the coma are than modeled assuming various chemical compositions of the spinning nucleus as it moves from
large heliocentric distance through perihelion. Since the heat flow into the nucleus will be different after perihelion from
that before perihelion, we can also expect different gas release rates after perihelion compared to those observed before
perihelion. Since not all the data are available yet, we report on progress of these calculations.
This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. |
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Keywords: | Comet nucleus coma volatile ices |
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