Dust Morphology Of Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1). Ii. Introduction Of A Working Model |
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| Authors: | Sekanina S Boehnhardt H |
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| Institution: | (1) Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Mail Stop 183-501, Oak Grove Drive, 4800, 91109 Pasadena, California, U.S.A.;(2) European Southern Observatory, Santiago de Chile, Chile |
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| Abstract: | A Monte Carlo image simulation code for dust features in comets is applied to comet Hale-Bopp in order to model the object's
persistent porcupine-like appearance on high-resolution images taken between May 11 and Nov. 2, 1996. A self-consistent fan
model is proposed, with six isolated sources of dust emission assumed at various locations on the surface of the rotating
nucleus and with the spin axis undergoing a complex motion in an inertial coordinate system. In the framework of this model,
jet pairs represent boundaries of fan-shaped formations described by dust ejected from isolated sources during periods of
time when the Sun is above the local horizon. The spin axis is found to have traveled through a field of 10° by 20° during
the examined period of nearly six months. Still more successful is a fan model with large diurnal dust-emission fluctuations,
which is consistent with an inertially fixed position of the spin axis and requires only three discrete sources. In this scenario,
the dust-emission profile is dominated by several brief flare-ups, or “puffs”, in the production of dust from one of the sources.
The results are insensitive to the spin rate, but the observed dust coma appearance is more typical of a rapidly rotating
comet.
This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. |
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| Keywords: | Comet Hale-Bopp nucleus active area dust morphology computer modelling |
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