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Comet Explorations

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Physical Processes in Comets, Stars and Active Galaxies

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Abstract

Several new missions to short period comets have been proposed. It is expected that these missions will extend our knowledge not only about comets, but also about the chemical and physical properties of the nebular region from which comets originate. Contrary to what is often implied, cometary material is not the pristine material of the nebula in which cometesimals formed. The gases in the coma have been chemically and physically processed by solar radiation and solar wind. The icy components of the nucleus have been altered by cosmic rays, ultraviolet radiation, the solar wind, and by radioactivity during the several 109 years that a comet spends in the Oort cloud. Even during the formation processes of cometesimals, selective condensation and chemical reactions have destroyed the chemical or physical records from the nebular region in which comet nuclei originated. To obtain the chemical composition and physical properties of the original nebular region from in situ measurements on comets, computer modeling, supplemented by laboratory determinations of material properties, is required. This general objective of modeling with laboratory support should be part of all mission plans.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. T-4, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA

    W. F. Huebner

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  1. W. F. Huebner
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Astrophysik, Max-Planck-Institut für Physik und Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, D-8046, Garching, Fed. Rep. of Germany

    Wolfgang Hillebrandt , Emmi Meyer-Hofmeister  & Hans-Christoph Thomas ,  & 

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© 1987 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Huebner, W.F. (1987). Comet Explorations. In: Hillebrandt, W., Meyer-Hofmeister, E., Thomas, HC. (eds) Physical Processes in Comets, Stars and Active Galaxies. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-72640-8_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-72640-8_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-72642-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-72640-8

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