Related papers: Cometary Ionospheres: An Updated Tutorial
Comets hold the key to the understanding of our solar system, its formation and its evolution, and to the fundamental plasma processes at work both in it and beyond it. A comet nucleus emits gas as it is heated by the sunlight. The gas…
In order to understand the origin and evolution of comets, one must decipher the processes that formed and processed cometary ice and dust. Cometary materials have diverse physical and chemical properties and are mixed in various ways.…
In this chapter, we provide a review of radiative processes in cometary atmospheres spanning a broad range of wavelengths, from radio to X-rays. We focus on spectral modeling, observational opportunities, and anticipated challenges in the…
We review our understanding of ionized plasma and neutral gas coupling in the weakly ionized, stratified, electromagnetically-permeated regions of the Sun's chromosphere and Earth's ionosphere/thermosphere. Using representative models for…
Once a cometary plasma cloud has been created through ionisation of the cometary neutrals, it presents an obstacle to the solar wind and the magnetic field within it. The acceleration and incorporation of the cometary plasma by the solar…
In this paper I review the motivation and current status of modeling of plasmas exposed to strong radiation fields, as it applies to the study of cosmic X-ray sources. This includes some of the astrophysical issues which can be addressed,…
This paper considers the problem of modeling the light polarization that emerges from an astrophysical plasma composed of atoms whose excitation state is significantly influenced by the anisotropy of the incident radiation field. In…
Availability of reliable atomic and molecular opacity tables is essential in a wide variety of astronomical modeling: the solar and stellar interiors, stellar and planetary atmospheres, stellar evolution, pulsating stars, and protoplanetary…
We present a study of the current state of knowledge concerning spacecraft operations and potential hazards while operating near a comet nucleus. Starting from simple calculations comparing the cometary coma environment to benign conditions…
The study of comets affords a unique window into the birth, infancy, and subsequent history of the solar system. There is strong evidence that comets incorporated pristine interstellar material as well as processed nebular matter, providing…
This Chapter provides a brief tutorial on some aspects of plasma physics that are fundamental to understanding the dynamics and energetics of the intracluster medium (ICM). The tutorial is split into two parts: one that focuses on the…
This paper is the result of the International Cometary Workshop, held in Toulouse, France in April 2014, where the participants came together to assess our knowledge of comets prior to the ESA Rosetta Mission. In this paper, we look at the…
Modeling plasmas in terms of atoms or ions is theoretically appealing for several reasons. When it is relevant, the notion of atom or ion in a plasma provides us with an interpretation scheme of the plasma's microscopic structure. From the…
Comets are important "eyewitnesses" of Solar System formation and evolution. Important tests to determine the chemical composition and to study the physical processes in cometary nuclei and coma need data in the UV range of the…
Partially ionized plasmas are found across the Universe in many different astrophysical environments. They constitute an essential ingredient of the solar atmosphere, molecular clouds, planetary ionospheres and protoplanetary disks, among…
Topic of this work are comets, small and elusive objects that may hold great secrets about the origin of the Solar System and life on Earth, being among the most primitive objects. The method of investigation addressed in this work is the…
Deriving properties of cometary nuclei from coma data is of significant importance for our understanding of cometary activity and has implications beyond. Ground-based data represent the bulk of measurements available for comets. Yet, to…
The ionised media that permeate the Milky Way have been active topics of research since the discovery of pulsars in 1967. In fact, pulsars allow one to study several aspects of said plasma, such as their column density, turbulence,…
We summarize the collective knowledge of physical and surface properties of comet nuclei, focusing on those that are obtained from remote observations. We now have measurements or constraints on effective radius for over 200 comets,…
The solar atmosphere is full of complicated transients manifesting the reconfiguration of solar magnetic field and plasma. Solar jets represent collimated, beam-like plasma ejections; they are ubiquitous in the solar atmosphere and…