Mathematics – Probability
Scientific paper
Jun 1989
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1989icar...79..396p&link_type=abstract
Icarus (ISSN 0019-1035), vol. 79, June 1989, p. 396-430.
Mathematics
Probability
34
Halley'S Comet, Rotation, Coma, Comet Nuclei, Fourier Transformation, Jet Flow, Light Curve, Comets, Halley, Rotation, Period, Models, Numerical Methods, Periodicity, Lightcurves, Parameters, Comet Nuclei, Shape, Symmetry, Precession, Spin, Motion, Angular Momentum, Amplitude, Torque, Photographs, Calculations, Jetting, Diagrams, Axis, Seasonal Variations, Stability
Scientific paper
Numerical simulations supported by analytical calculations are used to model the suspected condition of Comet Halley's nucleus, which has been suggested to not be in a state of principal-axis rotation. It is found easy to numerically generate lightcurves from modulated jets of material which exhibit both of the observed periodicities of 2.2 and 7.4 days, after choosing initial conditions for a representative nucleus such that the shorter period is the rotation period, and the longer period is that of precession of the spin vector in the body frame-of-reference. The improbability of exciting a spin precession about the axis of minimum moment-of-inertia, the relative instability of this state to the jet-induced torques, and the smaller probability of observing significant seasonal changes in the lightcurve in this state, all favor the model in which Halley's nucleus precesses about the axis of maximum moment-of-inertia.
Lissauer Jack . J.
Peale Stanton J.
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