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V. Tenishev, M. Combi (University of Michigan)
The cometary atmosphere is a unique phenomenon in the solar system. It represents a highly extended dusty gas cloud with a large range of change of its macroparameters from fluid to collisionless. And so, kinetic methods are the most suitable tools for simulation processes in cometary comae.
Our present understanding of the cometary nucleus is based on idea of “dirty snowball” according to which the nucleus consists of frozen volatiles and nonvolatile dust. The sublimated gas molecules drag away dust particles from the surface of cometary nuclei, so, the gas/dust interaction may a have significant effect on macroparameter distributions in cometary comae.
A multi-species dusty gas model has been developed based on the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) approach. An essential part the model is kinetic description of the dust phase. The model was utilized to study the inner coma of comet Borrelly, the region where dust and gas are produced and accelerated to their terminal velocities. An analysis of dust and gas distribution within in the coma is given.
The work was supported by the grants NAG5-13239 from the NASA Planetary Atmospheres Program and NAG5-13404 from the NASA Applied Information System Research Programs.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: vtenishe@umich.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35 #4
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.