Can ice survive in main-belt comets? Long-term evolution models of comet 133P/Elst-Pizarro

Details Can ice survive in main-belt comets? Long-term evolution models of comet 133P/Elst-Pizarro Can ice survive in main-belt comets? Long-term evolution models of comet 133P/Elst-Pizarro

Oct 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009mnras.399l..79p&link_type=abstract

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, Volume 399, Issue 1, pp. L79-L83.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

11

Comets: General, Comets: Individual: 133P/Elst-Pizarro

Scientific paper

We present detailed evolutionary calculations spanning 4.6 × 109 yr for a model representing main-belt comet 133P/Elst-Pizarro, considering different initial compositions: mixtures of ices and dust. We find that only crystalline H2O ice may survive in the interior of the nucleus, and may be found at depths ranging from ~50 to 150 m. Other volatiles will be completely lost. We further show, by means of fully three-dimensional evolutionary calculations, that if the ice is exposed, say as a result of a collision, the resulting activity is similar to the observed pattern of the behaviour of the comet for a large spin axis inclination, even if only a patch of ice is exposed.

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