Date of Award
January 2015
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Physics & Astronomy
First Advisor
Henry J Melosh
Committee Member 1
David Minton
Committee Member 2
Marc Caffee
Committee Member 3
Rafael Lang
Abstract
Sublimation of volatiles is a defining process of comet nuclei, and profoundly affects their dynamics, structure, and appearance. Central to understanding the processes by which comets formed and subsequently evolved is a careful computation of this sublimation pressure as a function of heliocentric distance. Unlike previous efforts, I develop a thermodynamic method to numerically compute the sublimation pressure of any species from limited knowledge of its physical properties. I then describe a novel cometary disruption mechanism in which this sublimation pressure induces differential stresses within the body of the nucleus that exceed its material strength, resulting in structural failure and breakup of the nucleus. I show that this mechanism is consistent with the behavior of Comet ISON (C/2012 S1), and use it to estimate the cohesive strength of ISON’s nucleus, a first for a Long-Period Comet.
Recommended Citation
Steckloff, Jordan Kenneth, "ON THE INTERACTION OF SUBLIMATING GAS WITH COMETARY BODIES" (2015). Open Access Dissertations. 1489.
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/1489