The chemical evolution of the coma of comet P/Stephan-Oterma

Details The chemical evolution of the coma of comet P/Stephan-Oterma The chemical evolution of the coma of comet P/Stephan-Oterma

Mar 1982

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1982phdt.........8c&link_type=abstract

Ph.D. Thesis Texas Univ., Austin.

Computer Science

14

Comet Heads, Cometary Atmospheres, Comets, Evolution (Development), Carbon Compounds, Chemical Reactions, Gases, Photolysis, Spatial Distribution, Vaporizing

Scientific paper

Observations of comet P/Stephan-Oterma were made with an intensified dissector scanner spectrograph on the McDonald Observatory 2.7m telescope. These spectra covered a range of heliocentric distances from 2.3 au pre-perihelion to 1.8 au post-perihelion. A study of the spatial distribution of the gases in the coma was conducted. Column densities of the observed cometary emissions (CN, C3, CH, and C2) were calculated. It was shown that Stephan-Oterma was very nearly spherically symmetric. A computer code to calculate the time dependent non-equilibrium chemistry taking place within the coma was developed. Models were calculated to pure gas-phase chemistry and for gas phase chemistry plus grain photolysis. It was shown that: (1) HCN is the parent for CN;(2) C2H2 is a parent for C2;(3) pure gas-phase chemistry cannot adequately reproduce the observed C3 but a single-step process such as grain photolysis can; (4) there must be much more CH4 in this comet than had previously been envisioned for any comet; and (5) at least prior to perihelion, the vaporization rate seems to have been controlled by water vaporization. The model of Haser (1957) is discussed and it is shown that a family of solutions for this model exist which can reproduce the observed CN gas distribution.

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