Cometary outbursts: re-discussion of collision causes - the application to the comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1

Abstract

In this paper, a source of cometary outbursts is examined. As a potential cause of some outbursts, impacts of a comet with meteoroids are considered. The probabilities and consequences of such events have been investigated in relation to the case of the Comet 29P/Schwassmann–Wachmann 1 outbursts. This paper focuses on two problems. The first one concerns the changes in brightness of the comet after the impact of a meteoroid into its nucleus. It is shown that impacts of comets with even metre‐sized solid impactors give an immediate considerable jump in their brightness consistent with that observed during real outbursts. The second problem is to estimate how real such events are. It is concluded that the probability of impacts with metre‐sized projectiles in relation to the Comet 29P/Schwassmann–Wachmann 1 is very low – practically negligible. The possibility of self‐bombardment of this comet by pieces of cometary material ejected earlier from its nucleus was also discussed. It is shown that the probability of such events is also hardly probable. That is why the main conclusion of this paper is that the impact mechanism could not trigger the outburst activity of the considered comet.

Thermal destruction of cometary materials - application to activity of comets

“…Eq. (11) in the paper by Gronkowski & Smela (1998) or chapter 2 in the paper by Gronkowski (2004b). Table 8.…”

“…We can also estimate the jump in the brightness of a comet caused by the thermal destruction which is the main observed characteristic of outbursts of comets in a general case. In order to estimate the change in the cometary brightness caused by this phenomenon we act analogically as in the papers by Gronkowski (2004aGronkowski ( , 2004b. After simple statistical considerations we receive the following formula for the jump in the cometary brightness:…”

“…Therefore the destruction processes connected with three hypothetical comets type 'a', 'b' and 'c' which represent the following groups of comets 'Jupiter family comets', 'Halley type comets' and 'long period comets' respectively are considered. The orbital parameters of these objects are the same as in the papers of Gronkowski (2004aGronkowski ( , 2004b.…”

The search for a cometary outbursts mechanism: a comparison of various theories

“…It is well known that the cometary outbursts do not show such time distribution. Long lasting observations of the Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 do not confirm the existence of such events (Gronkowski 2004b). Therefore the impact mechanism can generally be excluded, at least if it the outburst activity of comets is concerned.…”

“…The simulated changes of the brightness of the comet were calculated in a similar way as in the papers by Gronkowski & Smela (1998) and Gronkowski (2002Gronkowski ( , 2004aGronkowski ( , 2004b, and for that reason only the formula for ∆m is presented here:…”