Chapter 7: CometsChapter 7: Comets

• composition, origin, fate• tail formation; the physics of sublimation

Review: comets and thermal Review: comets and thermal equilibriumequilibrium

•Thermal equilibrium is a balance between: Heat production in the interior (gravitational potential?

Radioactivity? Others?) Surface heating due to solar radiation Rate of conduction (or convection)

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• Coma and tail form at a distance of ~2.5-3 AU, where ice can sublime

• The sublimation consumes a lot of energy, providing an additional, effective cooling source.

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OrbitsOrbits•Most comets have orbital periods >200 year

A 1997 database for 937 comets lists only 191 short-period (P<200 yr) comets

From Kepler’s third law, the semimajor axis of these long-period comets must be >34 AU: halfway between Neptune and Pluto

Kuiper BeltKuiper Belt•Small objects detected in the region of Neptune, in 1992

Currently several hundred are known Expect there are at least ~70,000 objects with diameters of

100km or more.•Kuiper belt believed to extend from 40-400 AU

Flattened, in the plane of the rest of the solar system•Almost certainly contain ice and carbonaceous dirt. Likely

inactive comets

The Kuiper beltThe Kuiper belt

•discovery image of Kuiper Belt object with diameter ~1200km

similar to Charon in size•suggestive that inner KBOs are source of Pluto, Charon...

Comet OrbitsComet Orbits• Distribution of semi-major axes has a peak at a~104 AU

Orbits are highly eccentric, so aphelion is ~2a. Originate in the very distant solar system Very high orbital energy. Bound to the solar system… but just.

500 AU 40 AU

Oort cloudOort cloud•Long-period comets come from all directions: not confined to the

ecliptic•Therefore it was postulated that a huge, spherical shell of cometary

material surrounds the solar system. This is the Oort cloud.•Outer edge expected to be at about 105 AU, where gravitational

influence of Alpha Centauri will begin to dominate.

Asteroid and comet sourcesAsteroid and comet sources

Short-period cometsShort-period comets• Jupiter-type comets are those

with P<20 yr Small inclinations, relatively

small eccentricities E.g. Encke, Tempel2 Likely originate in the Kuiper

belt. Perturbed by Neptune or Uranus?

•Halley-type comets have 20<P<200 yr

More eccentric, and higher inclinations

E.g. Halley has P=76 yr but e=0.97, and a retrograde orbit with i=162 deg

These probably originate from the Oort cloud, but have had their orbit perturbed.

Meteor showersMeteor showers•Meteor showers appear at predictable

times of year meteors from a given shower all

radiate from the same region of space and move with similar velocities

•These are due to the Earth passing through debris from cometary tails.

Cometary meteorsCometary meteors• From measurements of deceleration, we can tell

that these meteors are tiny, low density dust particles

• No meteor from a shower has ever been known to make it to Earth

• Rockets and high-alititude aircraft have collected examples of this dust

Orbit changesOrbit changes•Cometary orbits can be perturbed

by gravitational interactions (somewhat predictable)

•However, mass loss can also change the orbit in unpredictable ways.

Mass ejected from the tail gives rise to a rocket effect that can change the orbit.

•Calculate the change in period caused by a small change in velocity as a comet approaches the Sun.

Orbit changesOrbit changes•Cometary orbits can be perturbed

by gravitational interactions (somewhat predictable)

•However, mass loss can also change the orbit in unpredictable ways.

Mass ejected from the tail gives rise to a rocket effect that can change the orbit.

•E.g. the comet Swift-Tuttle (P=120 y) was predicted to appear in 1982, but did not appear until 1992.

Comet is associated with the Perseid meteor shower, and therefore losing mass

BreakBreak

Coma compositionComa composition•Spectrum of the coma shows bright emission lines due to small

molecules (2-3 atoms). These emisison lines dominate the light Atoms in the coma absorb solar photons, then re-emit them in all

directions.

ComaComa•Coma can begin to appear at distances as great as 5 AU•Indicates significant fractions of volatiles: methane,

ammonia, carbon dioxide, nitrogen •From the heating rate and the chemical composition, we can

calculate the amount of mass lost to sublimation.

Sublimation of cometsSublimation of comets•Consider a hypothetic comet, with a pure water-ice nucleus 1

km in radius. If the sublimation rate is ~1022 molecules/m2/s, how many passages will the comet be able to make through the inner solar system?

TailsTails•Tails extend for millions of kilometers•Always point away from the Sun•Two types (often both are visible at once)

Ion tail: straight, bluish-coloured tail Dust tail: broad, curved, and yellowish

Plasma (ion) tailPlasma (ion) tail• Straight, but complex: with rays, streamers and knots• Spectra dominated by ionized molecular emission lines• Pushed away from the sun by the solar wind

Dust tailDust tail•Smooth,

featureless•Spectrum nearly

identical to the solar, absorption spectrum

Made up of dust particles less than about 1 micron in size

•Radiation pressure forces the dust particles steadily farther from the Sun

Comet NucleiComet NucleiHalley (1986)

Borrelly (2001)

Wild (2004) Deep Impact (2005)

Visiting cometsVisiting comets• Need to know orbit accurately• Comets have large velocities relative to Earth (10-70 km/s)

Thus visiting spacecraft launched from Earth will face debris of small particles flying at very high velocities

• E.g. Halley’s comet has a retrograde orbit, so the relative velocity is about 70 km/s

European Giotto probe passed within 600 km of Halley’s nucleus

•Discoveries: Comet abundances are very near solar Very low albedo, only 4% (darker than a

lump of coal). Most of the surface is covered with a

thick dust crust, through which gas cannot escape.

Gas evaporating from the comet comes from vents or jets, on only about 10% of the surface

Density is low, only 300 kg/m3, indicating that it is loosely bound icy material.

WildWild•The spacecraft

Stardust visited comet Wild2 in 2004

•Collected samples of dust, which were jettisoned back to Earth in Jan 2006

•Nucleus is covered with numerous craters and hills

•At least 10 active gas vents

Tempel-1Tempel-1•Impacted by Deep Impact probe in 2005•Impact created a crater no more than about 50 m deep – only

scratched the surface•Demonstrates that nucleus is not a loose agglomeration of

material•Surface is more dusty than icy: and finer than normal sand.

Origins and evolution of cometsOrigins and evolution of comets

CollisionsCollisions

•This “Sun-grazing” comet was observed by the SOHO spacecraft a few hours before it passed just 50,000 km above the Sun's surface.

•The comet did not survive its passage, due to the intense solar heating and tidal forces.

Sun

•Shoemaker-Levy collided with Jupiter in 1994

•Was previously tidally disrupted into a string of fragments

•Each fragment hit Jupiter with the energy of a 10 megaton nuclear bomb explosion

Next lecture: Star formationNext lecture: Star formation•The interstellar medium: molecular clouds, dust grains etc.•Formation of a protostar and evolution onto the main

sequence