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The Thermal History and Structure of Cometary Nuclei

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Hans Rickman
Hans Rickman*
Affiliation:
Astronomiska ObservatorietBox 515 S-751 20 UppsalaSweden

Abstract.

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Cometary nuclei are often considered to be the most primitive bodies of the solar system. Thus it is particularly important to find out what structural changes may have been brought about as a result of their thermal evolution. Is there reason to believe that the bulk composition of the nucleus of a present-day short-period comet may differ from that of the original planetesimal in the solar nebula? Apart from the development of a non-volatile surface layer (‘dust mantle’), what further depth-dependent differentiation can we expect in such a nucleus? These are the ultimate questions addressed in this paper, and attention is focused on the two most active stages of thermal evolution: the early planetesimal stage with internal heating basically due to radioactive decay, and the recent or present cometary phase with strong external heating due to insolation of the surface.

Type
Section IV: The Cometary Nucleus
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 116 , Issue 2: Comets in the Post-Halley Era , 1991 , pp. 733 - 760
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1991

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