Issue |
A&A
Volume 412, Number 3, December IV 2003
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 879 - 891 | |
Section | Planets and planetary systems | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20031496 | |
Published online | 08 December 2003 |
Activity on the surface of the nucleus of comet 46P/Wirtanen
Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, BP 8, 13376 Marseille Cedex 12, France
Corresponding author: O. Groussin, olivier.groussin@oamp.fr
Received:
4
March
2003
Accepted:
6
May
2003
We present a thermal model of the nucleus of comet 46P/Wirtanen, constrained by the temporal variations of the water production rate, in order to understand the activity on its surface. We consider a spherical nucleus with a macroscopic mosaic of small and numerous active and inactive regions. At heliocentric distances rh > 1.5 AU, the active regions represent 5–15% of the surface. At ~1.5 AU, a rapid increase takes place and the active fraction reaches 70 to 100% in about 10 days, and then remains approximately constant up to perihelion where molecule s-1. Post-perihelion, this fraction returns to ~10%. The model is consistent with a geometric albedo ≤0.06. A refractory crust likely forms post-perihelion and can explain the variations of the activity over an orbit. Finally, we derived an erosion of ~0.5 m per revolution and a remaining lifetime for the nucleus of several hundred revolutions.
Key words: comets: individual: 46P/Wirtanen
© ESO, 2003
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