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5. Low-Temperature Condensates in Comets
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
Abstract
Recent observational data on the volatile fraction of comets are confronted with a model based on the fractional condensation, in the 80-100 °K range, of a higher-temperature equilibrium obtained from a solar mixture, more or less depleted in oxygen and in hydrogen. It is possible to almost duplicate the observational data, only by assuming that the solar ratio of C/0 is at least as large as 0.66 and that the hydrogen was drastically depleted by an unknown process in the primitive solar nebula. Although none of these two assumptions is at variance with present knowledge, the latter is sufficiently exotic to propose a simpler explanation, namely that comets could be made of interstellar grains relatively unprocessed by heat.
- Type
- Part IX. The Primitive Solar Nebula
- Information
- International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 39: Comets, Asteroids, Meteorites: Interrelations, Evolution and Origins , December 1977 , pp. 529 - 535
- Copyright
- Copyright © A.H. Delsemme 1977
References
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