Temperatures and minimum thickness of the inactive surface layer of comet Halley

Details Temperatures and minimum thickness of the inactive surface layer of comet Halley Temperatures and minimum thickness of the inactive surface layer of comet Halley

May 1987

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1987pggp.rept...65f&link_type=abstract

In NASA, Washington, Reports of Planetary Geology and Geophysics Program, 1986 p 65 (SEE N87-23341 16-91)

Physics

Geophysics

Comet Nuclei, Halley'S Comet, Ice, Surface Properties, Surface Temperature, Temperature Effects, Computerized Simulation, Thermal Conductivity, Thickness

Scientific paper

The effects of a nonvolatile mantle on the thermal state of a comet nucleus are investigated. The original computer model was modified so that temperatures can be computed through a thin dust mantle to the center of a 5 km spherical nucleus in the orbit of P/Halley. No attempt is made to simulate the formation of the mantle. Results are obtained for various specified values of initial mantle thickness and thermal conductivity to determine their effects on temperature profiles through the mantle. The minimum thickness of mantle that can withstand ejection by sublimating gasses is also calculated as a function of mantle thermal conductivity. Calculations were performed for ten or more orbits until temperatures in the mantle reached a near steady state. Results indicate that mantles as thin as 4 cm and 14 cm, for thermal conductivities of 600 and 6000 ergs/cm/s K, respectively, will remain intact. Surface temperatures as high as 511 K at perihelion and 400 K at the position of spacecraft encounter were computed at 0 degree latitude for an upright, rotating nucleus. Ice interface temperatures were raised by different amounts during each orbit, depending on mantle thickness and thermal conductivity, until steady state was reached. These results imply that relatively small nonvolatile masses emplaced randomly in comet nuclei could produce an irregular, permanently mantled surface and could also account for the apparently random location of active areas.

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