A Study of Dust and Gas at Mars from Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring)

Michael S. P. Kelley; Tony L. Farnham; Dennis Bodewits; Pasquale Tricarico; Davide Farnocchia

doi:10.1088/2041-8205/792/1/L16

A Study of Dust and Gas at Mars from Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring)

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2015-06-22 v2

Authors: Michael S. P. Kelley , Tony L. Farnham , Dennis Bodewits , Pasquale Tricarico , Davide Farnocchia

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Abstract

Although the nucleus of comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) will safely pass Mars in October 2014, the dust in the coma and tail will more closely approach the planet. Using a dynamical model of comet dust, we estimate the impact fluence. Based on our nominal model no impacts are expected at Mars. Relaxing our nominal model's parameters, the fluence is no greater than ~10^-7 grains/m^2 for grain radii larger than 10 {\mu}m. Mars orbiting spacecraft are unlikely to be impacted by large dust grains, but Mars may receive as many as ~10^7 grains, or ~100 kg of total dust. We also estimate the flux of impacting gas molecules commonly observed in comet comae.

Keywords

comet c/2013 a1 siding spring mars dust impact dynamical model impact fluence gas flux comet coma

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@article{arxiv.1408.2792,
  title  = {A Study of Dust and Gas at Mars from Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring)},
  author = {Michael S. P. Kelley and Tony L. Farnham and Dennis Bodewits and Pasquale Tricarico and Davide Farnocchia},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1408.2792},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters. 7 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables

A Study of Dust and Gas at Mars from Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring)

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