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New Estimates of Cometary Disintegration Times and the Implications for Diffusion Theory
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2015
Abstract
Numerical methods are used to establish the fraction of solar radiation utilized in the sublimation of ice on the surface of a cometary nucleus. An estimate can then be made of the lifetime of the nucleus. For a nucleus of radius 2 × 105 cm in an orbit of semilatus rectum 0.6 AU the lifetime is 300 revolutions. Comparison with diffusion theory reveals a significant deficiency of the theory in the case of comets with small reciprocal semimajor axes.
- Type
- Part V/Origin and Evolution of Comets
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- Copyright
- Copyright © Reidel 1972