Related papers: Cometary masses derived from non-gravitational for…
Cometary activity is a manifestation of sublimation-driven processes at the surface of nuclei. However, cometary outbursts may arise from other processes that are not necessarily driven by volatiles. In order to fully understand nuclear…
The physical properties of cometary nuclei observed today relate to their complex history and help to constrain their formation and evolution. In this article, we review some of the main physical properties of cometary nuclei and focus in…
We present a model of cometary dust capable of simulating the dynamics within the first few tens of km of the comet surface. Recent measurements by the GIADA and COSIMA instruments on Rosetta show that the nucleus emits fluffy dust…
Comets are remnants of the icy planetesimals that formed beyond the ice line in the Solar Nebula. Growing from micrometre-sized dust and ice particles to km-sized objects is, however, difficult because of growth barriers and time scale…
We observed 34 comets using the 24 micron camera on the Spitzer Space Telescope. Each image contains the nucleus and covers at least 10^6 km of each comet's orbit. Debris trails due to mm-sized or larger particles were found along the…
We surveyed 23 comets using the Infrared Array Camera on the Spitzer Space Telescope in wide filters centered at 3.6 and 4.5 microns. Emission in the 3.6 micron filter arises from sunlight scattered by dust grains; these images generally…
In this paper we have studied the chemistry of C, H, N, O, and S compounds corresponding to ions of masses <=40 amu in the inner coma of the comet 1P/Halley. The production rates, loss rates, and ion mass densities are calculated using the…
We present imaging and spectroscopic data on comet 19P/Borrelly that were obtained around the time of the Deep Space 1 encounter and in subsequent months. In the four months after perihelion, the comet showed a strong primary (sunward) jet…
Photometric and spectroscopic observations of five nearly parabolic comets with eccentricity larger than 0.99 at heliocentric distances greater than 4 AU were performed. No molecular emission was observed for any studied comet and the…
We analyse the population of near-Earth Long-Period Comets (LPCs) (perihelion distances q < 1.3 AU and orbital periods P > 10^3 yr). We have considered the sample of LPCs discovered during the period 1900-2009 and their estimated absolute…
The dynamics of irregularly-shaped particles subjected to the combined effect of gas drag and radiative forces and torques in a cometary environment is investigated. The equations of motion are integrated over distances from the nucleus…
The relation between ice composition in the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on the one hand and relative abundances of volatiles in the coma on the other hand is important for the interpretation of density measurements in the…
The disks that surround young stars are mostly composed of molecular gas, which is harder to detect and interpret than the accompanying dust. Disk mass measurements have therefore relied on large and uncertain extrapolations from the dust…
We report on the results of a spectroscopic survey of 130 comets that was conducted at McDonald observatory from 1980 through 2008. Some of the comets were observed on only one night, while others were observed repeatedly. For 20 of these…
Meteor physics can provide new clues about the size, structure, and density of cometary disintegration products, establishing a bridge between different research fields. From meteor magnitude data we have estimated the mass distribution of…
We developed a thermophysical model for cometary nuclei, which is based upon the assumption that comets form by the gravitational instability of an ensemble of dust and ice aggregates. Under this condition, the tensile strength of the…
The European Space Agency Rosetta/Philae mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014-2016 is the most complete and diverse investigation of a comet carried out thus far. Yet, many physical and chemical properties of the comet remain…
We try to constrain the cosmic molecular gas mass density at $z =1-1.5$ and that in the local universe by combining stellar mass functions of star-forming galaxies and their average molecular gas mass fractions against the stellar mass. The…
This paper constructs a theoretical framework for calculating the distribution of masses for secondary bodies forming via gravitational instability in the outer regions of circumstellar disks. We show that several alternate ways to specify…
The aim of this study is to estimate the rotational characteristics of meteoroids after their release from a comet during normal activity. The results can serve as initial conditions for further analyses of subsequent evolution of rotation…