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On the Importance of Dust in Cometary Nuclei

Keller, H. U.; Kührt, E. K.

The icy conglomerate model introduced by Whipple more than 40 years ago has been widely accepted in cometary science because it is able to describe numerous cometary phenomena. In this model comets are described as a conglomerate of ices and dust where the ices represent the major component. However, some recent observations seem to favour dust ri…

Interpretation of HMC Images by a Combined Thermal and Gasdynamic Model

Kührt, E.; Keller, H. U.; Knollenberg, J.

Images of comet Halley's nucleus taken by the HMC camera during the GIOT-TO encounter in 1986 show that a major part of the total dust production is localized in a few active areas which are the sources of gas-dust jets. The global dust distribution in the inner coma is dominated by two main jets roughly directed to the sun. A combination of a 1D …