Liquid-phase processes and outbursts of comets 1P/Halley, 17P/Holmes and 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann

Details Liquid-phase processes and outbursts of comets 1P/Halley, 17P/Holmes and 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann Liquid-phase processes and outbursts of comets 1P/Halley, 17P/Holmes and 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann

Oct 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011epsc.conf..279m&link_type=abstract

EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2011, held 2-7 October 2011 in Nantes, France. http://meetings.copernicus.org/epsc-dps2011, p.279

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Scientific paper

In a previous paper [1] we showed from detailed considerations of the physical and chemical characteristics of comet nuclei how aqueous and hydrocarbon (HC) liquid phases can form and persist in near-surface regions, the composition of which varies with depth. Here we describe how liquid-phase processes may underlie outbursts of the comets 1P/Halley, 17P/Holmes and 29P/Schwassmann- Wachmann, slow rotations of which promote the formation of consolidated melt zones in the subsurface. In our "wetted-layer model", low-melting reservoirs form near the base of the layer, and these initiate outbursts via explosive release of gases and other volatiles. Several possible mechanisms are mooted dependent on heliocentric distance and composition; (a) supersaturation of liquids leading to the sudden release of dissolved gases and lighter HC fractions, (b) sudden heating of CO-laden amorphous ice through abrupt transport of liquid under capillary forces into the underlying microporous solid, and (c) catalytic decomposition of accumulated hydrogen peroxide in aqueous phase. New observations of 29P shows that outbursts tend to be associated with lateral outflows in directions indicative of material escaping sideways from beneath a localized region having considerable strength and interpreted as a local hydrocarbon-wetted melt zone.

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