Re: the effects of outgassing jets on a comet's orbit.
Fred Whipple was the first to work out how the
dynamic effects of outgassing ("jets") affected the orbit
of a comet, right after he proposed the "icy snowball"
model of comets (replacing the XIXth century "flying
gravel bank" model, which today is the "rubble pile"
model).
I can't find his paper on it, but I recall that he first
applied it successfully to the irregularities in the
orbit of Cemet Enke, for which the position of the
biggest "jet" observed at that time was known).
Whipple's general idea can be found here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Fo-GY4J1h4cC&pg=PA242&lpg=PA242&dq=whipple+comet+jets&source=bl&ots=qOBQ9JRGUk&sig=nvwqERqQ_16nU0J76zG4uKnS00A&hl=en&ei=W0nTTLiRCof0sgarl7j6DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=whipple%20comet%20jets&f=false
on page 242.
Sterling K. Webb
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Peterson" <c...@alumni.caltech.edu>
To: "MeteorList" <meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2010 11:39 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] EPOXI images of Comet Hartley 2
The outgassing does affect the orbit, but the actual impact is very
small. The actual mass loss is tiny compared with the entire mass of
the nucleus, and the material velocity is low.
Chris
*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Count Deiro" <countde...@earthlink.net>
To: "Gary Fujihara" <fuj...@mac.com>; "MeteorList"
<meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2010 10:07 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] EPOXI images of Comet Hartley 2
Gary and List,
Thank you for the post, Big Kahuna. Anybody know if all that
outgassing imparts any thrust to the comet... and if so would it
affect its orbit?
Count Deiro
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