Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-lpg2g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T13:59:59.474Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Is Water Ice the Major Difference Between Comets and Asteroids?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

A.H. Delsemme
A.H. Delsemme*
Affiliation:
University of Toledo

Abstract

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 nature of the volatile phase in comets has never been established from observations. Although water was likely to be its major constituent, evidence was still circumstantial. It is shown here that water evaporation quantitatively explains not only the brightness of the hydrogen and hydroxyl halos observed by the OAO for the two bright comets of 1970, but also, which is much more convincing, it explains their brightness dependence on the heliocentric distance.

Information

Type
Part II-Origin of Asteroids Interrelations with Comets, Meteorites, and Meteors
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 12: Physical Studies of Minor Planets , 1971, pp. 461 - 464
Copyright
Copyright © NASA 1971

References

Blamont, J. 1970, Observation de l’Émission d’Hydrogène Atomique de la Comète Bennett. C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris 270, 1581–1584.Google Scholar
Code, A.D. 1971, Symp. on Recent Observations of Comets, AAS Div. Planet. Sci. (Tallahassee).Google Scholar
Code, A.D., Houck, T.E., and Lillie, C.F. 1970, Comet Tago-Sato-Kosaka (1961g). Central Bureau Astron. Telegrams, IAU Circ. 2201.Google Scholar
Delsemme, A.H. 1971, Symp. on Recent Observations of Comets, AAS Div. Planet. Sci. (Tallahassee).Google Scholar
Delsemme, A.H., and Miller, D.C. 1971, Physico-Chemical Phenomena in Comets. III. The Continuum of Comet Burnham. Planet. Space Sci. 9, in press.Google Scholar
Donn, B., and Urey, H.C. 1956, On the Mechanism of Comet Outbursts and the Chemical Composition of Comets. Astrophys. J. 123, 339–342. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haser, L. 1955, La Conservation des Radicaux Libres à Basse Température et la Structure des Noyaux des Comètes. C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris 241, 742–743.Google Scholar
Levin, B.F. 1943, Astron. Zh. 20, 37.Google Scholar
Levin, B.F. 1948, Dependence of the Variation in Brightness of Comets on Their Solar Distance. Astron. Zh. 25, 246.Google Scholar
McNesby, J.R., and Okabe, H. 1964, Vacuum Ultraviolet Photochemistry. Advances in Photochemistry (ed., Noyes, W.A. et al.), vol. 3, p. 157. Wiley-lnterscience. New York.Google Scholar
Marsden, B.G. 1968, Comets and Nongravitational Forces I. Astron. J. 73, 367–379.Google Scholar
Marsden, B.G. 1969, Comets and Nongravitational Forces II. Astron. J. 74, 720–734.Google Scholar
Whipple, F. 1950, A Comet Model. I. The Acceleration of Comet Encke. Astrophys. J. 111, 375–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar