Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Mar 1982
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1982phdt.........5c&link_type=abstract
Ph.D. Thesis Arizona Univ., Tucson.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
1
Comets, Dust, Infrared Astronomy, Astronomical Photometry, Comet Nuclei, Evolution (Development), Ice, Particle Size Distribution
Scientific paper
Infrared photometry was used to determine the physical characteristics of cometary solids. Observations were made of the reflected and thermal parts of the spectra of seven comets. Two of these comets, Bowell and West, were nonperiodic; the other five, Chernyhk, Encke, Kearns-Kwee, Stephan-Oterma, and Tuttle, were periodic. Observations in the 3 micron region of the spectrum of Comet Bowell provide the first direct evidence for the presence of H2O ice in a comet. The observations of the periodic comets yield the following picture of the dust in this type of object: grains with a size distribution ranging from about 0.3 to 10 microns and peaking around a few microns. These grains were made up of at least two components, a silicate material and an absorbing material. These characteristics are remarkably similar to those of the dust in nonperiodic comets. Comet West is the first case of a splitting comet in which the fragments were observed to have differences in their dusty component. These observations suggest that the nucleus of this comet did not have an 'onion skin' or layered structure but rather had pockets containing dust grains with different size distributions. Based on the results presented, the relation between cometary and interstellar dust, and the origin of comets are discussed.
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