Survival of ice in Main Belt Comets

Statistics – Computation

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

The discovery of the new class of objects, known as Main Belt Comets (MBCs), raises a number of 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 main belt bodies, despite continual insolation. Indeed, analytical estimates, as well as numerical computations, indicate that this is possible. We investigate the ice survival question by means of detailed numerical modeling of long-term evolution for a range of initial parameters. We consider bodies of radii between 150m and 2.5km, composed of ice and dust, adopting two different density values, and two heliocentric distances.
The questions that we address are: (a) To what extent and under what conditions (related to structure and composition) may water ice be preserved in MBCs for the age of the Solar System? and (b) How deep below the surface is the ice expected to be found? We find that small bodies (< 600m in radius) may completely lose the ice over a time corresponding to 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.

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