The Electrostatic Blow-Off of Cometary Grains and Variations and Outbursts of Brightness of Comets at Large Heliocentric Distances |
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Authors: | Piotr Gronkowski |
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Institution: | (1) Institute of Physics, University of Rzeszów, Rzeszów, Poland |
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Abstract: | Interaction between the strong solar wind and the dark side of a cometary nucleus was considered. It was calculated that the
potential of the dark side of the cometary nucleus could be numerically large and negative. Assuming that the nucleus of the
comet has surface mantle which consists of loose, fine dust-ice particles, it was shown that cometary particles could electrostatically
levitate over the nucleus. It was examined how this phenomenon affected the changes in the cometary brightness. Calculations
were carried out for realistically assumed values of a large range of cometary parameters. It was shown that the considered
mechanism could lead to the variations of cometary brightness, sometimes even to the outbursts of brightness. |
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Keywords: | comets solar wind |
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