Activity on the surface of the nucleus of comet 46P/Wirtanen

Details Activity on the surface of the nucleus of comet 46P/Wirtanen Activity on the surface of the nucleus of comet 46P/Wirtanen

Dec 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003a%26a...412..879g&link_type=abstract

Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.412, p.879-891 (2003)

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

20

Comets: Individual: 46P/Wirtanen

Scientific paper

We present a thermal model of the nucleus of comet 46P/Wirtanen, constrained by the temporal variations of the water production rate, in order to understand the activity on its surface. We consider a spherical nucleus with a macroscopic mosaic of small and numerous active and inactive regions. At heliocentric distances rh > 1.5 AU, the active regions represent 5-15% of the surface. At ~ 1.5 AU, a rapid increase takes place and the active fraction reaches 70 to 100% in about 10 days, and then remains approximately constant up to perihelion where QH_2O=1.3+/-0.3*E28 molecule s-1. Post-perihelion, this fraction returns to ~ 10%. The model is consistent with a geometric albedo <=0.06. A refractory crust likely forms post-perihelion and can explain the variations of the activity over an orbit. Finally, we derived an erosion of ~ 0.5 m per revolution and a remaining lifetime for the nucleus of several hundred revolutions.

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