A thermal modelling of cometary activity with a crystallized water ice nucleus |
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Authors: | S Yabushita N Hatta |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Applied Mathematics and Physics, Department of Mineral Science and Technology, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan |
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Abstract: | Arguments are presented to suggest that surface layers of the nuclei of periodic comets consist of crystallized rather than
amorphous water ice and thermal modelling of such nuclei is presented. The rate of sublimation of water from a rotating nucleus
is found to be greater than that from a uniformly heated nucleus. When the model is applied to P/Halley, the sublimation rate
at perihelion is found to be 8.1 × 1029 mol s−1 for a nucleus rotating with a period of 50 hours and 7.6 × 1029 for a uniformly heated nucleus on the premise that the effective radius of the nucleus is 2.5 km. The total sublimation of
water per revolution is 5.38 × 1036 molecules for P/Halley and 3.91 × 1036 molecules per P/Crommelin. The result so obtained is discussed in relation to the observational data. |
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