Evolutionary Models of Main Belt Comets

Details Evolutionary Models of Main Belt Comets Evolutionary Models of Main Belt Comets

Jan 2012

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2012aas...21943216p&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #219, #432.16

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Scientific paper

The discovery of the new class of objects, known as Main Belt Comets (MBCs), raises several questions regarding their structure, composition and origin. Whether MBCs were formed in their present location or captured from more distant regions during the early bombardment era is still debated; either way, they have spent most of their lifetimes in the main belt, which has been considered too hot for ice to survive for any length of time. The low conductivity of porous cometary material suggests, however, that ice may be retained in the interior of MBCs, despite continual insolation. We show results of long-term evolutionary calculations for a model representing MBC 133P/Elst-Pizarro, considering different mixtures of ices and dust. The main conclusion is that crystalline water ice may survive at depths of 50-150m, but other volatiles will be completely lost. We then show results of a parameter study addressing the ice survival question by means of
long-term evolution calculations for a range of initial parameters: radii between 150m and 2.5km, two different density values, and two different orbits. We find that small bodies (< 600m in radius) may completely lose the ice over the age of the Solar System, especially if the density is low and they are relatively close to the Sun. By contrast, in larger bodies (a few km in size) that may have been captured or collisionally formed only 100 Myr ago, ice may be found at depths of only 10m. Such bodies could be easily activated by collisions to exhibit cometary activity. Finally, we investigate the effect of spin and latitude on the depth at which ice may be found and show that near the poles ice may survive quite close to the surface.

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