English

Prevailing dust-transport directions on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2016-06-28 v2

Abstract

Dust transport and deposition behind larger boulders on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P/C-G) have been observed by the Rosetta mission. We present a mechanism for dust transport vectors based on a homogenous surface activity model incorporating in detail the topography of 67P/C-G. The combination of gravitation, gas drag, and Coriolis force leads to specific dust transfer pathways, which for higher dust velocities fuel the near nucleus coma. By distributing dust sources homogeneously across the whole cometary surface, we derive a global dust-transport map of 67P/C-G. The transport vectors are in agreement with the reported wind-tail directions in the Philae descent area.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1604.00876,
  title  = {Prevailing dust-transport directions on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko},
  author = {Tobias Kramer and Matthias Noack},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1604.00876},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

7 pages, 3 figures, corrected directions and labels in Fig 3(e)