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Water Ice Sublimation Distribution on the Surface of Short Period Comet

Li, C.; Zhao, Y. H.; Ji, J. H.

Comets are the primitive planetesimals left in the solar system. Studying the evolution of comet nucleus is of great significance for understanding the formation and evolution history of other celestial bodies in the solar system. Under the action of solar radiation, the volatile components of comets sublimate and drive the dust movement, resultin…

Formation Mechanism of Contact Binary Asteroid (4179) Toutatis

Hu, S. C.

Contact binary asteroids are a kind of single asteroids with bifurcated (or bi-lobed) configurations. Ground-based radar observations have shown that about 14% of near-Earth asteroids larger than 200 meters in diameter may be contact binaries. Specially, the targets of the three minor planet missions, Hayabusa, Chang'e-2, and Rosetta, have contact…