Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T06:42:27.511Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

History of the Dust Released by Comets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The origin of the Zodiacal cloud has been attributed to an influx of cometary debris which maintains a stable meteoritic complex (Whipple, 1955). Objections to a cometary origin of the Zodiacal cloud were presented by Harwit (1963) without denting the cometary theory (Whipple, 1967). Since then, the Finson-Probstein theory of dust production has been applied successfully to dusty comets. As a consequence size distributions of dust particles have been deduced for Arend Roland, 1957 III, (Finson and Probstein, 1968), Seki-Lines, 1962 III, (Jambor, 1973), Bennett, 1970 II, (Sekanina and Miller, 1973) and Kohoutek, 1973 f. (Jambor unpublished). Only careful consideration of the size distribution of the dust from periodic comets can resolve the problem of the origin of the Zodiacal cloud.. The following reexamines the production and history of the dust released from periodic comets using the Finson-Probstein theory and compares it to the size distribution of dust deduced from the above mentioned comets.

Type
Part II
Copyright
Copyright © NASA 1976

References

Everhart, E. (1974). The Evolution of Comet Orbits, These proceedings.Google Scholar
Finson, M. L. and Probstein, R. F. (1968). A Theory of Dust Comets, Ap. J., 154, 327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giese, R. H., (1973). Space Research XIII, 1165–1171, Akadernie-Verlag, Berlin.Google Scholar
Harwit, M. (1963). Origins of the Zodiacal Dust Cloud. J.G.R., 68, 21712180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jambor, B.J. (1973). The Split Tail of Comet Seki-Lines. Ap. J. 185. 727734.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, J. F., and Smeethe, M. J. (1970), Nature 227, 588589.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kerker, M. (1969). The Scattering of Light. Academic Press, N.Y., 351.Google Scholar
Sekanina, Z. and Miller, F.D. (1973). Comet Bennett 1970 II. Science 179, 565567.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whipple, F. L. (1955). Ap. J. 121, 750.Google Scholar
Whipple, F. L. (1967). On Maintaining the Meteoritic Complex. In “The Zodiacal Light and the Interplanetary Medium”. (Weinberg, J. L. ed) 409425.Google Scholar