Related papers: Laboratory Experiments to Understand Comets
Freeze-out of the gas phase elements onto cold grains in dense interstellar and circumstellar media builds up ice mantles consisting of molecules that are mostly formed in situ (H2O, NH3, CO2, CO, CH3OH, and more). This review summarizes…
Quantum coherence is a fundamental property of quantum systems, separating quantum from classical physics. Recently, there has been significant interest in the characterization of quantum coherence as a resource, investigating how coherence…
Cool, evolved stars are the main source of chemical enrichment of the interstellar medium (ISM), and understanding their mass loss and structure offers a unique opportunity to study the cycle of matter in the Universe. Pulsation,…
We review the history of spacecraft encounters with comets, concentrating on those that took place in the recent past, since the publication of the Comets II book. This includes the flyby missions Stardust and Deep Impact, and their…
Far ultraviolet observations of comets yield information about the energetic processes that dissociate the sublimated gases from their primitive surfaces. Understanding which emission processes are dominant, their effects on the observed…
Recent years have seen tremendous progress in our understanding of the extreme universe, which in turn points to even deeper questions to be further addressed. History has shown that the symbiosis between direct observations and laboratory…
This text was originally written to accompany a series of lectures that I gave at the `35th Saas-Fee advanced course' in Switzerland and at the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaii. It reviews my current understanding of the…
Within the framework of The Heterogeneous dust Evolution Model at the IaS (THEMIS) this work investigates in detail the surface processes and chemistry relating to core/mantle interstellar and cometary grain structures and its influence on…
We present a chemical kinetics model of the solid-phase chemical evolution of a comet, beginning with a long period of cold-storage in the Oort Cloud, followed by five orbits that bring the comet close to the Sun. The chemical model is…
In this review presented at the Royal Society meeting, "Cometary Science After Rosetta", I present an overview of studies of small solar system objects that exhibit properties of both asteroids and comets (with a focus on so-called active…
Comets display with decreasing solar distance an increased emission of gas and dust particles, leading to the formation of the coma and tail. Spacecraft missions provide insight in the temporal and spatial variations of the dust and gas…
The physics of astrophysical jets can be divided into three regimes: (i) engine and launch (ii) propagation and collimation, (iii) dissipation and particle acceleration. Since astrophysical jets comprise a huge range of scales and…
Probabilities of the outcomes of consecutive quantum measurements can be obtained by construction probability amplitudes, thus implying unitary evolution of the measured system, broken each time a measurement is made. In practice, the…
(English) In this lecture I discuss recent progress in the understanding of the chemical evolution of protoplanetary disks that resemble our Solar system during the first ten million years. At the verge of planet formation, strong…
A major limitation and a continuing source of confusion in the interpretation of molecular line observations has been the large degree of chemical complexity that is observed in star-forming molecular cores. The past decade has seen…
In star forming regions, we can observe different evolutionary stages of various objects and phenomena such as molecular clouds, protostellar jets and outflows, circumstellar disks, and protostars. However, it is difficult to directly…
Comet--asteroid transition (CAT) objects are small solar system bodies in the process of evolving from cometary nuclei into asteroids, as they gradually lose volatile substances due to solar heating. The volatile material is mainly water…
Stars form within molecular clouds but our understanding of this fundamental process remains hampered by the complexity of the physics that drives their evolution. We review our observational and theoretical knowledge of molecular clouds…
While purely philosophical in the early times, and still very speculative at the beginning of the twentieth century, Cosmology has gradually entered into the realm of experimental science over the past eighty years. It has raised some…
The origin of organic compounds detected in meteorites and comets, some of which could serve as precursors of life on Earth, still remains an open question. The aim of the present study is to make one more step in revealing the nature and…