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New Estimates of Cometary Disintegration Times and the Implications for Diffusion Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2015

O. V. Dobrovol'skij
O. V. Dobrovol'skij*
Affiliation:
Institute of Astrophysics, Dushanbe, U.S.S.R.

Abstract

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Numerical methods are used to establish the fraction of solar radiation utilized in the sublimation of ice on the surface of a cometary nucleus. An estimate can then be made of the lifetime of the nucleus. For a nucleus of radius 2 × 105 cm in an orbit of semilatus rectum 0.6 AU the lifetime is 300 revolutions. Comparison with diffusion theory reveals a significant deficiency of the theory in the case of comets with small reciprocal semimajor axes.

Type
Part V/Origin and Evolution of Comets
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 45: The Motion, Evolution of Orbits and Origin of Comets , 1972 , pp. 352 - 355
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1972 

References

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