Physics
Scientific paper
Jul 1995
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995hst..prop.5834m&link_type=abstract
HST Proposal ID #5834
Physics
Hst Proposal Id #5834 Solar System
Scientific paper
A subset of well-observed dynamically new comets will be between heliocentric distances of 19 to 28 AU during cycle 5 where it should be possible for the first time to detect their nuclei. These comets are part of a long-term ground-based program to search for physical and chemical differences between the comets entering the inner Solar System for the first time and those which have been thermally processed (the periodic comets). The gradual disappearance of their comae has been monitored for several years from the ground, but it has been impossible to observe the nuclei because of the presence of comae. The nucleus properties of these comets are not only essential to thermal sublimation models for the light-curve behavior, but also extremely important to models of the outer Solar System formation, in particular to the mass distribution in the nebula and the sizes of the protoplanetary bodies at large distances. Cycle 5 will be the only opportunity to obtain physical information about these nuclei before they become definitively too faint to be observed. The WFPC2 will be used to detect the nuclei to a limiting magnitude of R = 28. Non-detections are very improbable; however, the corresponding constraints (2.5-5.5 km) would be extremely strong, and equally important to the models. Small nucleus sizes, combined with thermal sublimation models, will rule out the hypothesis that distant, unusually active comets must be large, rather that they must have a
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