Model Of Comet Dust Consistent With Ground Based Observations And Studies Of Stardust Returned Samples

Statistics – Computation

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Scientific paper

Recently a significant progress has been achieved in theoretical interpretation of the remote-sensing studies of comet dust. The most successful model was the one that presented comet dust as large aggregates of submicron particles. This model could qualitatively explain spectral and angular change in comet dust brightness, polarization, and thermal emission and was also consistent with the composition of the comet dust obtained in-situ for comet Halley. The tracks in Stardust aerogel confirmed presence of large aggregates in the dust of comet Wild-2 and, thus, supported the theoretical model. However, among the Stardust samples, compact particles of silicate composition were also found. In this paper we present a model of comet dust that is consistent with the Stardust findings, i.e. presents a mixture of aggregates and compact particles. A power-law size distribution was selected with the power equal to -3 that is between the power obtained by Stardust DFMI measurements and the power obtained from the study of the tracks in the aerogel (Hoertz et al., Science, 314, 1716, 2006). Aggregates in our model were simulated as Ballistic Cluster-Cluster Aggregates and compact particles were simulated as a polydisperse mixture of silicate spheroids with some distribution of the aspect ratio. The computations were based on the T-matrix codes by Mishchenko et al. This model could provide much better fit to the photometric and polarimetric observational data than the model which considered only aggregates. The model reproduces the correct shape of the polarization curve, including negative polarization reaching the value -2% and positive polarization with the maximum value less than 35%, red polarimetric color, red color of comet dust, albedo of the dust equal to 4%, and the ratio of silicates to carbonaceous materials in the dust equal to 0.5 that is in accordance with the elemental abundances of Halley's dust.

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