Chemical Models of Cometary Atmospheres

Details Chemical Models of Cometary Atmospheres Chemical Models of Cometary Atmospheres

Oct 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.4809b&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #48.09; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.508

Physics

Scientific paper

Chemical modeling is central to understand the physics and chemistry of comets. Photochemistry is a major source of ions and electrons that further initiate key gas-phase reactions, leading to the plethora of molecules and atoms seen in cometary atmospheres. The relevant physico-chemical processes are identified within a modeling framework to understand observations and in situ measurements of comets Borrelly, Hyakutake, and Hale-Bopp and to provide valuable insights into the intrinsic properties of their nuclei. Details of these processes are presented, from the collision-dominated inner coma to the solar wind interaction region. The results include thermodynamics (e.g., temperature and velocity structure) and photo- and gas-phase chemistry (e.g., composition, gas and electron energetics) throughout the cometary atmosphere. The model chemistry successfully accounted for the Halley water-group composition. Prior model results are generally consistent with in situ measurements of the PEPE instrument onboard the Deep Space 1 Mission to comet Borrelly, S2 in Hyakutake, and observations of C2, C3, and NS in Hale-Bopp. The effects of photoelectrons that react via electron impact reactions are important to the overall ionization. This extensive modeling effort to investigate these important cometary processes is highly relevant to ground-based observations of comets and past, on going, and future spacecraft missions to these primitive objects.

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