Composition and Origin of Cometary Materials

Description

Comet nuclei are the most primitive bodies in the solar system. They have been created far away from the early Sun and their material properties have been altered the least since their formation. Thus, the composition and structure of comet nuclei provide the best information about the chemical and thermodynamic conditions in the nebula from which our solar system formed. In this volume, cometary experts review a broad spectrum of ideas and conclusions based on in situ measurement of Comet Halley and remote sensing observations of the recent bright Comets Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake. The chemical character of comet nuclei suggests many close similarities with the composition of interstellar clouds. It also suggests material mixing from the inner solar nebula and challenges the importance of the accretion shock in the outer nebula. The book is intended to serve as a guide for researchers and graduate students working in the field of planetology and solar system exploration. Several special indexes focus the reader's attention to detailed results and discussions. It concludes with recommendations for laboratory investigations and for advanced modeling of comets, the solar nebula, and the collapse of interstellar clouds.

First Sentence

The European Giotto mission, the Russian Vega missions and the Japanese Sakigake and Suisei missions to Comet P/Halley, the Giotto flyby at comet Grigg-Skjellerup and the NASA ICE flyby at comet Giacobini-Zinner have so far been the only spaceprobes coming close enough to a comet to probe the coma in situ.

Subjects

Other Editions

• Composition and Origin of Cometary MaterialsHardcoverSpringer2000-01-31
• Composition and origin of cometary materialsKluwer Academic Publishers1999-01-01
• Composition and Origin of Cometary MaterialsSpringer2012-01-01
• Composition and Origin of Cometary MaterialsSpringer London, Limited2012-01-01