Origin and Early Evolution of Comet Nuclei

by Balsiger, H.; Altwegg, K.; Huebner, W.; Owen, T.; Schulz, R.

• ISBN13: 9780387854540
• ISBN10: 0387854541
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-11-28
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

Comet nuclei are the most primitive bodies in the solar system. They have been created far away from the early Sun and it is supposed that their material has been altered the least since their formation. The workshop was bringing together representatives of several scientific communities in the fields of interstellar clouds, star-forming regions, the solar nebula, and comets. The intent was to formulate the current understanding and interconnectivity of the various source regions of comet nuclei and their associated compositions and orbital characteristics.The goal was to better understand the survival of cometary materials (grains, molecules, free radicals, and atoms) from extrasolar sources (circumstellar shells and molecular clouds), their modifications in the solar nebula, and the effects of their properties on the formation and early physical and thermal evolution of the macroscopic bodies, the comet nuclei, in the various subnebulae. Closely associated is their transport into the outer solar system, the Kuiper belt and Oort cloud. The distinction between direct measurements, in situ or by remote sensing, of cometary material properties and properties derived from indirect means, deduced from laboratory studies and theoretical deductions, was emphasized with the aim to guide future investigations. The book is intended to serve as guide for researchers and graduate students working in the field of planetology and solar system exploration. It should also help to influence the planning of scientific strategies for the encounter of the Rosetta spacecraft with Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. 1
Introductions
Origins of Cometary Materials	p. 5
Origin of Comet Nuclei and Dynamics	p. 27
Reservoirs for Material
Reservoir for Comet Material: Circumstellar Grains	p. 43
Interstellar Reservoirs of Cometary Matter	p. 59
Cometary Refractory Grains: Interstellar and Nebular Sources	p. 75
Reservoirs for Comets
Dynamical Origin of Comets and Their Reservoirs	p. 109
Reservoirs for Comets: Compositional Differences Based on Infrared Observations	p. 127
Evolution of Nuclei
Thermal and Chemical Evolution of Comet Nuclei and Kuiper Belt Objects	p. 147
Loss of the Surface Layers of Comet Nuclei	p. 165
New Results from Laboratory Measurements and Modeling
Distributed Sources in Comets	p. 179
How Well Do Experimental Results on Large Samples of Gas-Laden Amorphous Ice Duplicate Deep Impact's Findings?	p. 199
Comet Knudsen Layers	p. 207
New Results from Observations
Morphology-Composition-Isotopes: Recent Results from Observations	p. 225
Deep Impact and the Origin and Evolution of Cometary Nuclei	p. 237
Assessing the Elemental Composition of Comet 81P/Wild 2 by Analyzing Dust Collected by Stardust	p. 247
Future - The Rosetta Mission
Composition Measurements of a Comet from the Rosetta Orbiter Spacecraft	p. 259
Capabilities of Philae, the Rosetta Lander	p. 275
Closure
Rapporteur Paper on the Composition of Comets	p. 291
Colloquium
The Contributions of Comets to Planets, Atmospheres, and Life: Insights from Cassini-Huygens, Galileo, Giotto, and Inner Planet Missions	p. 301
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