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1.
The present study considers the dependence of characteristics of light scattering by aggregate particles on the refractive index, size, and number of spherical particles composing the aggregate, as well as on the structure and porosity of the cluster. The parameters were varied in sufficiently wide ranges to let a coherent picture of the polarimetric properties of relatively small aggregate particles emerge (the size parameter of the aggregate is less than 10). It was shown that, in the framework of the aggregate model, the behavior of polarization phase curves observed for both comets and regolith surfaces can be explained. The modeling carried out confirms that the sizes of the cometary dust particles are larger than the wavelength. However, the grains forming the cometary dust particles or the regolith (or details of the particle surface) have a size less than 0.3–0.5 m. This agrees with estimates obtained by other methods. The determining role in the formation of the polarization phase curve is played by the structure of the external layer of the clusters. The appearance of the negative branch of polarization and its shape substantially depend on the effectiveness of the interference of multiply scattered waves and on the interaction in the near field at these phase angles. Interference and interaction in the near field in turn are determined by the sizes of elementary scatterers and the structure of the ensemble. If the number of constituent particles in the aggregate is larger than several tens, its role in the formation of the negative branch of polarization is minor, while the influence on the polarization maximum position is rather substantial. The polarimetric data alone cannot provide a unique estimate of the refractive index: the brightness measurements must be invoked as well. For a more complete quantitative interpretation of the observations, the scattering matrix of aggregates comparable in size to or larger than the wavelength must be calculated in the short- and long-wavelength ranges, which still encounters serious theoretical and technical difficulties. Moreover, in order to obtain unique results, it is obvious that the spectral range of observations must be extended and that other types of measurements, such as spectroscopic ones, must also be used.  相似文献   

2.
In situ probing of a very few cometary comae has shown that dust particles present a low albedo and a low density, and that they consist of both rocky material and refractory organics. Remote observations of solar light scattered by cometary dust provide information on the properties of dust particles in the coma of a larger set of comets. The observations of the linear polarization in the coma indicate that the dust particles are irregular, with a size greater (on the average) than about 1 μm. Besides, they suggest, through numerical and experimental simulations, that both compact grains and fluffy aggregates (with a power law of the size distribution in the −2.6 to −3 range), and both rather transparent silicates and absorbing organics are present in the coma. Recent analysis of the cometary dust samples collected by the Stardust mission provide a unique ground truth and confirm, for comet 81P/Wild 2, the results from remote sensing observations. Future space missions to comets should, in the next decade, lead to a more precise characterization of the structure and composition of cometary dust particles.  相似文献   

3.
The analysis of the polarized light scattered by cometary dust particles provides information on the physical properties of the solid component of cometary comae for C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp and 1P/Halley. A model of light scattering by a size distribution of aggregates of up to 256 submicron-sized grains (spherical or spheroidal) mixed with single spheroidal particles has been developed, with its parameters adjusted to fit the phase angle and wavelength dependence of the polarization observations. The particles are built of two materials: a non-absorbing silicates-type material and a more absorbing organic-type material. The model reproduces accurately the inversion angle and the positive branch of the polarization phase curves from the visible to the near-infrared spectral domains. A negative branch of the polarization phase curves appears in our model, although the negative branch is not deep enough to reproduce accurately the observations. Significant differences are shown between the two comets, with dominance of small grains in the coma of Comet C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp, well fitted by a distribution of the volume-equivalent diameter, a, following a−3.0 with a lower cutoff around 0.20 μm and an upper cutoff of at least 40 μm. For 1P/Halley, the size distribution follows a−2.8 with a lower cutoff around 0.26 μm and an upper cutoff of about 38 μm. The relative amount of organic-type particles is larger for 1P/Halley while the amount of aggregates, significant for both comets, is larger for C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp.  相似文献   

4.
This review begins with a discussion of the techniques needed for observations of scattered light from cometary dust. After an introduction into the basic concepts of the scattering process, observations of the phase curves of brightness, colour and polarization are covered. Images of colour and polarization are presented and the observed relation of colour and polarization in jets and shells is discussed. The interpretation of the measurements is based on the power law size distributions of dust grains observed from space. The power index must lie between 2 and 4 to provide the mass budget and visibility of the dust coma in accordance with the basic facts of cometary physics. Application of mechanical (radiation pressure) theory to cometary images allows us to derive related power law distributions for comets not explored by spacecraft. Grain scattering models are presented and compared with observations. A prediction is made of the spatial distribution of Stokes parameters U and V in the presence of aligned particles. Up to now such patterns have not been observed. Future work should include the exploration of comets at small and possibly very small phase angles and a detailed comparison of polarization and colour images of comets with thermal images and with models based on mechanical theory. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.  相似文献   

5.
To try to define specific physical properties of the dust of Jupiter-family comets (JFCs), we compare the light scattered by them. Amongst the more than 1000 JFCs, less than 200 are numbered, 40 of them being rather bright. In the present work we use data from the latter. In situ observations of three nuclei show low albedo surfaces. The albedo of the dust particles in the coma is low, with generally a red colour. The A(α) product is a measure of cometary activity and secular changes. Images of different regions (jets and fans) give indications on the nucleus rotation and position of the emitting areas, as compared to the position of the rotation axis. Differences in physical properties between the particles in different regions are pointed out by differences in the linear polarization of the scattered light and by spectral variations in brightness and polarization. Jupiter family comets are considered as dust-poor comets. Tails and trails’ studies give an estimation of the size distribution of the particles. However the dust production rates depend on the largest particles (up to centimetre size), which are mainly observed in the trails where large dark compact particles are found. These dark particles are also responsible for the high polarization in the inner most coma of some comets. The meaning, in terms of physical properties, of the linear polarization is discussed through different examples such as 2P/Encke, 9P/Tempel 1 or the fragments of 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3. Cometary outbursts and splitting events show that the properties of the dust ejected from the interior of the nucleus are similar to the ones of more active comets (new or with larger semi-major axis).  相似文献   

6.
Cometary particles mainly consist of silicates and carbon compounds; they seem to be fluffy aggregates of tiny grains, as found in some IDPs. The linear polarization of the scattered light is an efficient method to characterize their physical properties. Laboratory simulations of light scattering by cometary analog particles help to disentangle different physical parameters by comparison with observational data. We present here polarization laboratory results with nine samples levitating particles: five samples of vapor-condensed magnesiosilica, one ferrosilica smoke, a mixture of magnesio-ferrosilica smokes, one mixture of ferrosilica with carbon and one mixture of magnesio-ferrosilica with carbon. The phase curves are bell-shaped with a maximum polarization at a phase range of (80°-100°). A shallow negative branch can be present at phase angles smaller than 20°. The different characteristics of the phase curves are discussed considering the size and the structure of the constituent grains and the size of the particles. For the five magnesiosilica samples, the maximum in polarization is in the 40% range (close to cometary values), and no wavelength dependence is detected; the negative branch, whose presence seems to be linked to the presence of large aggregates of fine silica (SiO2) grains, does not always exist. For the ferrosilica smoke, the maximum in polarization is about 30% in red light (632.8 nm) and 40% in green light (543.5 nm); the negative branch occurs for phase angles smaller than 20°. For the two mixtures with carbon black, the polarization spectral gradient is positive, as expected for cometary analog particles. Finally, the phase curves obtained for agglomerates of magnesio-ferrosilica and carbon (expected to be the main components of cometary particles) are comparable to those obtained by remote observations of dust in cometary comae.  相似文献   

7.
The process of comet formation through the hierarchical aggregation of originally submicron-sized interstellar grains to form micron-sized particles and then larger bodies in the protoplanetary disc, culminating in the formation of planetesimals in the disc extending from Jupiter to beyond Neptune, is briefly reviewed. The planetesimal theory for the origin of comets implies the existence of distinct cometary reservoirs, with implications for the immediate provenance of observed comets (both long-period and short-period) and their evolution as a result of planetary perturbations and physical decay, for example splitting and sublimation. The principal mode of cometary decay and collisional interaction with the terrestrial planets is through the formation and evolution of streams of cometary debris and hitherto undiscovered families of cometary asteroids. Recent dynamical results, in particular the sungrazing and sun-colliding end-state for short-period comet and asteroid orbits, are briefly discussed.  相似文献   

8.
A small but increasing volume of observations of cometary nuclei has accumulated during the past two decades. This development is accelerating with upcoming space missions such as Stardust, Contour, and Rosetta. In response to the growing need for a theoretical understanding of optical properties of cometary nuclei, we have calculated synthetic reflectance spectra in the wavelength region 0.2-2.0 μm, photometric colors in the Johnson-Kron-Cousins UBVRI system, and visual geometric albedos for a large number of porous ice-dust mixtures with differing composition, regolith grain sizes, and grain morphologies, such as core-mantle grains, dense clusters of such grains, and large irregular particles with internal scatterers. The calculations are based on Mie theory, the discrete dipole approximation, Hapke theory, and a numerical solution to the equation of radiative transfer in particulate media. In addition, wavelength-integrated directional-hemispherical albedos and flux attenuation profiles in the regolith as functions of depth have been calculated in order to improve the energy budget and treatment of energy boundary conditions in thermal models of cometary nuclei.Our results are compared with spectra and colors of observed cometary nuclei. Our main conclusions are that only regolith consisting of relatively large core-mantle grains, or clusters of smaller core-mantle grains, is capable of reproducing the red colors seen in comets; that ice-dust mixtures actually can be darker than ice-free regolith in certain circumstances; and that solar radiation sometimes penetrates to a depth that is comparable to the region in which diurnal temperature variations occur.  相似文献   

9.
Comets seem to be composed of matter, which is supposed to have the same molecular composition as protosolar nebula. Although there are no unbiased evidence that cometary nuclei retain the molecular composition inherited from the protosolar cloud, the observed properties of comets indicate that there is at least a resemblance between cometary composition and the material properties of dense interstellar clouds. Therefore the origin of comets could be searched in the cold stages of the protosolar nebula and molecular abundances of grain mantles in this nebula may be similar to those in the cometary dust. It is suggested that comets may contain pristine, virtually unaltered protosolar material and their study might be very relevant way to more information about processes in early stages of the solar nebula. Our knowledge about composition of the cometary nucleus is still relatively scarce, but we can partly deduce it from data obtained either by ground-based spectroscopy or by in situ mass spectrometry from space experiments. Most important were the discovery of fluffy CHON particles composed partly or even completely from compounds containing light elements. No consensus concerning the presence of interstellar pristine matter in comet has been reached from various approaches to determine the relationship between comets and interstellar grains. Most of these studies are based on infrared spectroscopy. Another method is the comparison on the chemical models of the protosolar nebula with the volatile compounds of the cometary nuclei. Both gas-phase and grain-surface chemistry are considered and initial gas-phase atomic abundances are assumed to be protosolar. The cometary matter is certainly not identical with the typical material of dense interstellar cool dense clouds, but it is closer to it than any other type of matter in solar system so far accessible to us. The data from comets combined with models of chemical evolution of matter in environment similar as prevailed the early stage of presolar nebula may at least impose constrains on the condition for comet formation. Here presented study is a preliminary contribution to such studies.  相似文献   

10.
Polarimetric observations of the light scattered by dust have been carried out at Pic-du-Midi Observatory with the 2 m telescope in June and September–October 1996, and at Haute-Provence Observatory with the 0.80 m telescope in April 1997. They cover a total number of 11 nights and a large (6.9°–47.7°) phase angle range. The spatial resolution allows to underline structures in the coma, as well in the brightness images as in the polarization maps, with a correlation between the regions of bright structures and the regions of higher polarization. A clear difference appears between the sunward and antisunward side, with higher polarization on the antisunward side. The phase angle coverage allows us to obtain a polarimetric phase curve for the whole coma and to compare it with other cometary phase curves. The degree of polarization is higher for Hale-Bopp than for the comets previously observed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.  相似文献   

11.
Many naturally occurring particles (including, most likely, cometary dust) have an aggregate structure. We study the scattering properties of polydisperse independent aggregate particles (clusters) comparable in size to visible wavelengths. The sizes of the monomers constituting a cluster play a significant role in forming the angular dependences of intensity and linear polarization of the scattered light. Irregularly structured aggregates composed of a moderate number of spheres (<50) with size parameters 1.3–1.65 exhibit properties typical of cometary dust particles: a slight increase in backscattering intensity, a negative polarization at small phase angles, an inversion phase angle close to the observed one, an increase in brightness, and a linear polarization with increasing wavelength. In this case, the imaginary part of the refractive index for particles can increase with decreasing wavelength in the visible spectral range, which is typical of silicates with an admixture of iron or organic material. The spectral dependence of extinction efficiency for aggregates is less steep than that for equivalent spherical particles, and its maximum is shifted to larger size parameters. Therefore, when analyzing extinction measurements, the scatterer shape must be taken into account to avoid underestimation of the scattering-particle sizes.  相似文献   

12.
Cometary material inevitably undergoes chemical changes before and on leaving the nucleus. In seeking to explain comets as the origin of many IDPs (interplanetary dust particles), an understanding of potential surface chemistry is vital. Grains are formed and transformed at the nucleus surface; much of the cometary volatiles may arise from the organic material. In cometary near-surface permafrost, one expects cryogenic chemistry with crystal growth and isotope. This could be the hydrous environment where IDPs form. Seasonal and geographic variations imply a range of environmental conditions and surface evolution. Interplanetary dust impacts and electrostatic forces also have roles in generating cometary dust. The absence of predicted cometary dust envelopes is compatible with the wide range of particle structures and compositions. Study of IDPs would distinguish between this model and alternatives that see comets as aggregates of core-mantle grains built in interstellar clouds.  相似文献   

13.
One explanation of the sudden changes in the brightness of comets is proposed based on the author's earlier suggestions involving the fragmentation of cometary grains. Within the inner coma, a core‐mantle model of the structure of grains is assumed. The proposed mechanism is a combination of electrostatic stress and thermodynamical fragmentation of the cometary grains water‐ice mantle. It has been shown that the vapour pressure of volatile inclusions placed in the waterice mantle of grains can increase sufficiently to cause their fragmentation. It takes place before grains can completely sublime into the vacuum away. Numerical calculations have been carried out for a large range of values of probable physical characteristics of cometary material. The proposed approach yields increases in cometary brightness consistent with observations of typical cometary outbursts. It is concluded that this approach can provide an explanation of the sudden change in activity of comets for a wide range of heliocentric distances (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)  相似文献   

14.
The explanation of the opposition effects observed in brightness and polarization in different celestial bodies and laboratory samples is still far from being complete. The shadow hiding and coherent backscattering mechanisms are mentioned most frequently in this connection. In the present work, we consider one more scattering mechanism—the interaction of particles in the near field—and its influence on the brightness and polarization of light scattered by ensembles of particles at small phase angles. First, we analyze two manifestations of this mechanism: the field inhomogeneity in the vicinity of the scatterers and the shielding of particles by each other at distances compared with their sizes. Then, we use the model regolith described as an ensemble of clusters as constituents and compare the contributions of the coherent backscattering and the near-field effect to the intensity and polarization of light when the porosity of the ensemble is varied. The modeling confirms that the phase dependences of the intensity and polarization of light scattered by complex structures in the backscattering domain is mainly caused by these two mechanisms. The coherent backscattering works more effectively in sparse media, while the near-field effect manifests itself in more compact ensembles of wavelength-sized particles. However, it is difficult to distinguish quantitatively their contributions, even in models of simple structures. A number of observations, especially of moderate- and low-albedo objects, can be explained only by invoking the near-field effect.  相似文献   

15.
A Monte Carlo model designed to compute both the input and output radiation fields from spherical-shell cometary atmospheres has been developed. The code is an improved version of that by H. Salo (1988, Icarus76, 253-269); it includes the computation of the full Stokes vector and can compute both the input fluxes impinging on the nucleus surface and the output radiation. This will have specific applications for the near-nucleus photometry, polarimetry, and imaging data collection planned in the near future from space probes. After carrying out some validation tests of the code, we consider here the effects of including the full 4×4 scattering matrix in the calculations of the radiative flux impinging on cometary nuclei. As input to the code we used realistic phase matrices derived by fitting the observed behavior of the linear polarization as a function of phase angle. The observed single scattering linear polarization phase curves of comets are fairly well represented by a mixture of magnesium-rich olivine particles and small carbonaceous particles. The input matrix of the code is thus given by the phase matrix for olivine as obtained in the laboratory plus a variable scattering fraction phase matrix for absorbing carbonaceous particles. These fractions are 3.5% for Comet Halley and 6% for Comet Hale-Bopp, the comet with the highest percentage of all those observed.The errors in the total input flux impinging on the nucleus surface caused by neglecting polarization are found to be within 10% for the full range of solar zenith angles. Additional tests on the resulting linear polarization of the light emerging from cometary nuclei in near-nucleus observation conditions at a variety of coma optical thicknesses show that the polarization phase curves do not experience any significant changes for optical thicknesses τ?0.25 and Halley-like surface albedo, except near 90° phase angle.  相似文献   

16.
JHK colors of 14 comets are correlated with cometary distance from the Sun. The correlation could be explained by (1) changes in coma particle size as comets approach the Sun, (2) decrease in the ice/dirt ratio in coma grains as comets approach the Sun, and/or (3) phase reddening. Short-term color changes in individual comets at fixed phase angles suggest that phase reddening does not explain all color changes. Short-term changes are consistent with jets injecting fresh (high ice/dirt) nuclear material into parts of the coma. All colorimetric data are consistent with pristine coma material being relatively low-albedo dirty ice grains colored by carbonaceous dirt like that in RD-type asteroids. Ice sublimation near the Sun may leave residual pure RD dirt grains, explaining the observed color changes.  相似文献   

17.
The images of the southwestern part of the lunar disk showing the distributions of the negative polarization parameters of the light scattered by the lunar surface are presented. The distributions of the negative polarization minimum P min, the inversion angle αinv, and the polarization slope at the inversion point h significantly differ from the albedo image. This testifies to the fact that polarimetry yields independent information on the structure and optical properties of the lunar regolith.  相似文献   

18.
Not considering very rare in situ measurements of cometary nuclei, observations of comets at large heliocentric distances are the only direct source of our knowledge on their sizes. Observations of a cometary nucleus in pure reflected sunlight, at the time when coma is absent, are the way in which the nucleus size can be estimated. Probabilities that extreme observations represent non—active stages of cometary nuclei and also reliability of derived cometary nucleus sizes are investigated. Statistical analysis is based on a sample of 2842 photometric observations of 67 long-period comets observed at large heliocentric distances. For any long-period comet, there is a probability of 2:3 that the sizes derived on the basis of observations at extreme distances are in good agreement with the real nucleus sizes. For new comets in Oort's sense the probability is 3:4 independent of investigated arcs of orbits. For old comets a chance to estimate correct sizes is 1:2 but on the pre-perihelion arc only 1:3. It is also demonstrated that a premature start of activity prior to perihelion or a longer fading after perihelion is more frequent than a short-time isolated activity at large heliocentric distances.  相似文献   

19.
We have observed the coma of Comet 9P/Tempel 1, the target of the Deep Impact mission, by the polarization imaging technique, before and after the impact event (−32, −7, +43 and +65 h). Our observations were conducted in the red wavelength domain from Haute-Provence Observatory (France), with the 80-cm telescope. The overall polarization of 9P/Tempel 1, as obtained near 41° phase angle, is monitored and compared to data from other (active and less active) comets studied by the same technique. The linear polarization of the dust ejected by the impact is compared to previous observations of dust present in jets, ejected during outbursts or released when comets happen to split. At phase angles of about 41°, the difference in polarization between the comets with a low maximum in polarization and the comets with a high maximum in polarization is about 1%; it may thus be difficult to conclude about the classification. Nevertheless, the overall polarization after the impact rapidly reached a value corresponding to the high polarization class of comets, and later progressively decreased to its initial value. The polarization was measured to be slightly lower (about 1%) before the impact than after it in a 26,000-km aperture. The plume formed from dust ejected by the impact was still present 65 h after it. The variations of the intensity and the polarization in the coma provide some clues to variations of the physical properties of the particles; comparison with other techniques corroborates the presence of large particles and of submicron-sized grains in aggregates.  相似文献   

20.
The light scattered by noctilucent cloud particles is nearly fully polarized at scattering angles in the vicinity of 90 . This was one of the reasons to conclude that the upper limit of their sizes is not larger than about 0.12 m. Nevertheless, this estimate was made on the basis of the Mie scattering theory for spherical particles, whereas many investigators noted usefulness of highly aspherical shapes of noctilucent cloud particles. In this paper, we used rigorous light scattering theory for randomly oriented nonspherical particles to calculate the degree of linear polarization of the scattered light for ice grains of different shape. By comparing these calculations with rocket polarization measurements of noctilucent clouds, we show that, as for spherical particles, the upper limit of particle equal-volume radii for slightly flattened and elongated grains is of about 0.12 m, while for highly aspherical plate-like and needle-like particles this upper limit is substantially larger and is of about 0.18–0.20 m. We also report calculations of the volumetric scattering cross-section for particles of different shape and show that randomly oriented spheroids have (slightly) smaller scattering cross section per unit particle mass than equal-volume spherical grains. Nevertheless, if in noctilucent clouds plate-like and needle-like grains grow to much larger sizes than spherical particles, their scattering efficiency may be much greater.  相似文献   

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