Determination Of Cometary Dust Physical Properties From Light Scattering Observations.

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Information on cometary dust physical properties stems from a synergy between remote observations, in situ missions and simulations.
The linear polarization of the solar light scattered by cometary dust corresponds to smooth and bell-shaped (with a small negative branch and a maximum below 30%) phase curves with a quasi-linear increase with the wavelength between 30° and 50° phase angle [1].
In situ missions (from Giotto and VeGa at comet 1P/Halley to Stardust at 81P/Wild2 and Deep Impact at 9P/Tempel 1) have shown that cometary dust particles have low densities and are most probably easily fragmenting aggregates rich in organics material.
We have developped a new model of cometary comae based on the properties of light scattered by a mixture of fractal aggregates of (up to 256) sub-micron sized spheroidal grains and compact spheroidal particles [2]. Physical parameters of the size distribution of particles (minimum and maximum size, shape of the size distribution and quantity of absorbing and non-absorbing particles) are now retrieved for a few comets showing thus the validity of the method and giving new insights into the cometary coma properties useful for the preparation of future missions to comets (including the Rosetta mission at 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko).
[1] Levasseur-Regourd et al., JQSRT 79-80, 903-10, 2003. [2] Lasue et al., JQSRT 100, 220-36, 2006

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