The effect of internal inhomogeneity on the activity of comet nuclei – Application to Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko

Rosenberg, Eric D.; Prialnik, Dina

doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2010.03.037

Cited by 29 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…The "outbursty" activity of Echeclus could be interpreted as being due to internal heterogeneities, possibly reflecting its rubble-pile nature (either primordial or collisional, see Rousselot et al 2016). In fact, Rosenberg & Prialnik (2010) showed that internal heterogeneities could potentially be detected through the activity pattern of a comet, where erratic behaviors would be induced by blocks of varying thermo-physical properties randomly distributed inside the nucleus.…”

Section: Interiorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Centaurs to comets: 40 Years

Peixinho

Thirouin

Tegler

et al. 2020

The Trans-Neptunian Solar System

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In 1977, while Apple II and Atari computers were being sold, a tiny dot was observed in an inconvenient orbit. The minor body 1977 UB, to be named (2060) Chiron, with an orbit between Saturn and Uranus, became the first Centaur, a new class of minor bodies orbiting roughly between Jupiter and Neptune. The observed overabundance of short-period comets lead to the downfall of the Oort Cloud as exclusive source of comets and to the rise of the need for a Trans-Neptunian comet belt. Centaurs were rapidly seen as the transition phase between Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), also known as Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) and the Jupiter-Family Comets (JFCs). Since then, a lot more has been discovered about Centaurs: they can have cometary activity and outbursts, satellites, and even rings. Over the past four decades since the discovery of the first Centaur, rotation periods, surface colors, reflectivity spectra and albedos have been measured and analyzed. However, despite such a large number of studies and complementary techniques, the Centaur population remains a mystery as they are in so many ways different from the TNOs and even more so from the JFCs.

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Section: Interiorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Centaurs to comets: 40 Years

Peixinho

Thirouin

Tegler

et al. 2020

The Trans-Neptunian Solar System

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“…The latter scenario was favored by Belton (2008) to explain mini-outbursts observed in 9P/Tempel-1 but since we found a non-explosive outburst the former mechanism might apply in our case. Recent work on thermal comet evolution models using lower thermal conductivity values as usually employed in the past find that the crystallization front may be located at rather shallow depths of the order of 0.5 to several meters (Marboeuf & Schmitt 2014) and also might be locally inhomogeneous dependent on the initial composition and structure of the nucleus (Rosenberg & Prialnik 2010). These findings make this explanation more attractive in our case because it is difficult to imagine that such a small event has its origin deep inside the nucleus as would be required by older calculations of the depth of the crystallization front.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another possible mechanism found by Rosenberg & Prialnik (2010) is that erratic activity and outbursts which occur more or less randomly distributed over the orbit and local time may be the consequence of internal inhomogeneity of the nucleus structure and composition. Although the diverse interactions of their different inhomogeneities are very complex it seems that a low conductivity layer blocking further penetration of the heat wave beneath an ice rich upper layer could promote small outbursts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A mini outburst from the nightside of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko observed by the OSIRIS camera on Rosetta

Knollenberg¹,

Lin²,

Hviid³

et al. 2016

A&A

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Context. On 12 March 2015 the OSIRIS WAC camera onboard the ESA Rosetta spacecraft orbiting comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko observed a small outburst originating from the Imhotep region at the foot of the big lobe of the comet. These measurements are unique since it was the first time that the initial phase of a transient outburst event could be directly observed. Aims. We investigate the evolution of the dust jet in order to derive clues about the outburst source mechanism and the ejected dust particles, in particular the dust mass, dust-to-gas ratio and the particle size distribution. Methods. Analysis of the images and of the observation geometry using comet shape models in combination with gasdynamic modeling of the transient dust jet were the main tools used in this study. Synthetic images were computed for comparison with the observations. Results. Analysis of the geometry revealed that the source region was not illuminated until 1.5 h after the event implying true nightside activity was observed. The outburst lasted for less than one hour and the average dust production rate during the initial four minutes was of the order of 1 kg/s. During this time the outburst dust production rate was approximately constant, no sign for an initial explosion could be detected. For dust grains between 0.01−1 mm a power law size distribution characterized by an index of about 2.6 provides the best fit to the observed radiance profiles. The dust-to-gas ratio of the outburst jet is in the range 0.6−1.8.

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“…The most important feature of this model is including the sintering of ice grains, and the temperature dependent sublimation coefficient of ice. These effects are included neither in the ATPM model described in Rozitis and Green (2011), nor in the model Rosenberg and Prialnik (2010) which includes calculation of the heat transport within comet nucleus in 3D.…”

Section: Mathematical Formulationmentioning

confidence: 99%