Outbursts of comets—the case of 1P/Halley

Gronkowski, P.

doi:10.1016/s0032-0633(02)00003-x

Cited by 7 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Potentially, the outburst of brightness can be observed. The changes ∆m in the cometary brightness are calculated in the similar way as in the following papers: Gronkowski & Smela 1998, Gronkowski 2002a, 2002b. Therefore for clarity its short sketch is summarized below.…”

Section: The Frequency Of Collisions Between a Comet And Bodies Movinmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Others have suggested the external causes like collisions with interplanetary bodies (Fernández 1990;Hughes 1991;Matese & Whitman 1994) or solar flares (Intrilligator & Dreyer 1991). It has been recently shown that combination of the amorphous water-ice transformation, the HCN polymerization and the influence of the strong solar wind can explain the main characteristics of outbursts of some comets at large heliocentric distances (Gronkowski & Smela 1998;Gronkowski 2002aGronkowski , 2002b. Thus, it seems probable that outbursts of comets have different sources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Are the cometary outbursts caused by impacts with interplanetary vagabonds probable?

Gronkowski

2004

Astron Nachr

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Abstract. The possibility of impacts and their results in relation to the cometary outbursts between comets and other small bodies in the solar system has been investigated. Taking into consideration certain physical features of cometary nuclei and impacting bodies, the probability of impacts of small bodies moving in the main asteroid belt with hypothetical comets which represent three types: Jupiter family comets, Halley family comets and long period comets has been computed. The probability of impacts between comets and meteoroids at large heliocentric distances has also been estimated. Potential consequences of these events in relation to outbursts of the cometary brightness have been discussed.

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Section: The Frequency Of Collisions Between a Comet And Bodies Movinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are the cometary outbursts caused by impacts with interplanetary vagabonds probable?

Gronkowski

2004

Astron Nachr

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“…Assuming a uniform solid water-ice nucleus, the gravitational binding energy of comet Mellish is of order 10 13 Joules, and accordingly a collision with any object larger than about 15 meters across would likely be fully disruptive of the nucleus. As indicated in section 2 above the expected size range for present-day Vulcanoids falls between 0.5 and 6 km, and as such under direct, head-on collision conditions the nucleus of comet Mellish would be completely destroyed.…”

Section: Impact Probability and Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vulcanoid Asteroids and Sun-Grazing Comets – Past Encounters and Possible Outcomes

Beech

Peltier

2015

AJAA

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Abstract:The region between 0.07 to 0.25 au from the Sun is regularly crossed by sungrazing and small perihelion distance periodic comets. This zone also supports stable orbits that may be occupied by Vulcanoid asteroids. In this article we review the circumstances associated with those comets known to have passed through the putative Vulcanoid region, and we review the various histories associated with a sub-group of these comets that have been observed to displayed anomalous behaviors shortly before or after perihelion passage. In all 406 known comets are found to have passed through the Vulcanoid zone; the earliest recorded comet to do so being C/400 F1, with comet C/2008 J13 (SOHO) being the last in the data set used (complete to 2014). Only two of these comets, however, are known to be short period comets, C/1917 F1 Mellish and 96P / Machholz 1, with the majority being sungrazing comets moving along parabolic orbits. We examine the case history of comet C/1917 F1 Mellish in some detail since numerical simulations suggest that over the past ~ 40 thousand years it has regularly passed through the Vulcanoid zone. Additionally, this particular comet is linked to the December Monocerotid meteor shower, which is known to have produced a series of very bright fireball displays in the 11 th Century. An extremely small impact probability of order 10 -19 per perihelion passage with a Vulcanoid of diameter 1 km or larger is determined for comet Mellish, and we conclude that the ancient fireball display is not likely associated with a Vulcanoid collision. Indeed, while we find no evidence to indicate that any historical collisions between a cometary nucleus and a Vulcanoid have occurred, this result, we suggest, does not automatically mean that no Vulcanoids exist at the present time, or that collisions have not taken place in the past. Likewise, these results do not rule out the possibility of collisions being observable at future times. As ever, since first being hypothesized, if they exist at all, the Vulcanoid asteroids remain elusive.

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“…The physical description of outbursts and variations of brightness of comets is well known. The following papers: Hughes (1975), Grudzińska (1980), Andrienko and Vashchenko (1981), Sekanina (1985), Flammer et al (1986), Hughes (1990) Cabot et al (1996) and Enzian et al (1996) describe physical characteristics and the most frequently proposed hypotheses that explain sources of considered phenomena. That is why we remind only the main characteristics of cometary outbursts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the contrary, there are authors who have suggested external causes such as impacts with interplanetary bodies (Fernández, 1990;Hughes, 1991;Matese and Whitman, 1994) or solar flares (Intrilligator and Dreyer, 1991). It is worth noting that combination of amorphous water-ice transformation, HCN polymerisation and influence of strong solar wind can explain the main characteristics of outbursts of some comets at large heliocentric distances (Gronkowski and Smela, 1998;Gronkowski, 2002a,b). That is why it seems that there is not one cause of cometary outbursts and variations of their brightness.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Electrostatic Blow-Off of Cometary Grains and Variations and Outbursts of Brightness of Comets at Large Heliocentric Distances

Gronkowski

2004

Astrophys Space Sci

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Interaction between the strong solar wind and the dark side of a cometary nucleus was considered. It was calculated that the potential of the dark side of the cometary nucleus could be numerically large and negative. Assuming that the nucleus of the comet has surface mantle which consists of loose, fine dust-ice particles, it was shown that cometary particles could electrostatically levitate over the nucleus. It was examined how this phenomenon affected the changes in the cometary brightness. Calculations were carried out for realistically assumed values of a large range of cometary parameters. It was shown that the considered mechanism could lead to the variations of cometary brightness, sometimes even to the outbursts of brightness.

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Outbursts of comets—the case of 1P/Halley

Cited by 7 publications

References 35 publications

Are the cometary outbursts caused by impacts with interplanetary vagabonds probable?

Are the cometary outbursts caused by impacts with interplanetary vagabonds probable?

Vulcanoid Asteroids and Sun-Grazing Comets – Past Encounters and Possible Outcomes

The Electrostatic Blow-Off of Cometary Grains and Variations and Outbursts of Brightness of Comets at Large Heliocentric Distances

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