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The Temporary Satellite Capture (TSC) of short-period comets, such as Oterma and Helin-Roman-Crockett, by Jupiter has intrigued astronomers for many years.
Comets occasionally appear in our night skies. We see them as bright or faint fuzzy balls of light, with one or two long tails streaming out. They look nothing like the stars, the moon, or any other object we see in the sky. That is because they really are quite different!
The Deep Space 4/Champollion mission is designed to test and validate technologies for landing on and anchoring to small bodies, and sample collection and transfer, in preparation for future sample return missions from comets, asteriods, and satellites.
A 10 micrometer silicate emission feature has been discovered in the spectra of comets P/Borrelly and P/Faye at R of roughly 1.5 AU although this feature was not observed in P/Schaumasse. A model is presented to show how the shape of the silicate feature can depend on the way in which silicate and absorbing material are mixed in the grains.
We study the effects arising from relativistic perturbations on the motion of asteroids and comets and show that for a number of such objects, inclusion of relativistic contributions in the equations of motion gives rise to significant improvements in the orbital solutions.
A unified model is presented that quantitatively interprets the observed characteristics of the nuclear train, the two dust trails, and the tail region of P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 in terms of a collisionally modified rotation velocity distribution of the comet's debris.
The significance and detectability of a normal component of the nogravitational acceleration that perturbs the motions of periodic comets are examined by comparing the total perturbation effect, calculated from the component's empirical term in the equations of motion intergrated over the orbital period, with the cumulative pertubations of the longitude of the ascending node and the orbital inclination brought about by the momentum that is transferred to the nucleus due to water outgassing from discrete active regions.
This paper describes an algorithm for translational motion estimation near a comet surface using scanning laser rangefinder data.
Comprehensive analysis of discrete events of secondary fragmentaion leads to conceptually new understanding of the process of disintegration of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. We submit that the jovian tidal forces inflicted extensive cracks throughout the interior of the original nucleaus, but did not split it apart.
The dust coma of comet Hale-Bopp was observed in the themal infrared over a wide range in solar heating (R=4.9-0.9 AU) and over the full wavelength range from 3 mu to 160 mu.
The last several years has seen the discovery of the first two interstellar objects, the first ever planetary defense mission, recommendation for a rapid reconnaissance planetary defense demonstration, and the continued emergence of a robust commercial small satellite industry. The present and near future also consist of emerging next-generation observatories including Vera Rubin and NEO Surveyor. These seemingly disparate events converge in the context of rapid response: a cross-cutting capability that would enable NASA and the international community to quickly discover and respond to an emerging target such as a near-Earth object (NEO), interstellar object (ISO), or long-period comet (LPC) either for rapid characterization of a potential threat, or revolutionary science that would inform early solar system formation and evolution. In late October 2022, subject matter experts gathered at the California Institute of Technology in a week-long workshop sponsored by the Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) to address enabling mission concepts for rapid response and key technology gaps (final report in progress). These experts concurred that the ability to respond on the order of a few months is necessary for rapid in-situ characterization of a NEO, ISO, or LPC, and that while there are several technology gaps, this capability could be realized in the near future.
Centaur 29P/Schwassmann–Wachmann 1 (SW1) is a highly active object orbiting in the transitional "Gateway" region between the Centaur and Jupiter-family comet (JFC) regions. SW1 is unique among the Centaurs in that it experiences quasi-regular major outbursts and produces CO emission continuously; however, the source of the CO is unclear. We argue that, due to its very large size (∼32 km radius), SW1 is likely still responding, via amorphous water ice (AWI) conversion to crystalline water ice (CWI), to the "sudden" change in its external thermal environment produced by its Myrs-long dynamical migration from the Kuiper Belt to its current location at the inner edge of the Centaur region. It is this conversion process that is the source of the abundant CO and dust released from the object during its quiescent and outburst phases. If correct, these arguments have a number of important predictions testable via remote sensing and in situ spacecraft characterization, including the quick release on Myr timescales of CO from AWI conversion for any few kilometer-scale scattered disk Kuiper Belt Objects transiting into the inner system; that to date SW1 has only converted between 50% and 65% of its nuclear AWI to CWI; that volume changes on AWI conversion could have caused subsidence and cave-ins, but not significant mass wasting or crater loss; that SW1's coma should contain abundant amounts of CWI+CO 2 "dust" particles; and that when SW1 transits into the inner system within the next 10,000 yr, it will be a very different kind of JFC.
Context. Pre-equinox measurements of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko with the mass spectrometer ROSINA/DFMS on board the Rosetta spacecraft revealed a strongly heterogeneous coma. The abundances of major and various minor volatile species were found to depend on the latitude and longitude of the nadir point of the spacecraft. The observed time variability of coma species remained consistent for about three months up to equinox. The chemical variability could be generally interpreted in terms of surface temperature and seasonal effects superposed on some kind of chemical heterogeneity of the nucleus. Aims. We compare here pre-equinox (inbound) ROSINA/DFMS measurements from 2014 to measurements taken after the outbound equinox in 2016, both at heliocentric distances larger than 3 AU. For a direct comparison we limit our observations to the southern hemisphere. Methods. We report the similarities and differences in the concentrations and time variability of neutral species under similar insolation conditions (heliocentric distance and season) pre- and post-equinox, and interpret them in light of the previously published observations. In addition, we extend both the pre- and post-equinox analysis by comparing species concentrations with a mixture of CO2 and H2O. Results. Our results show significant changes in the abundances of neutral species in the coma from pre- to post-equinox that are indicative of seasonally driven nucleus heterogeneity. Conclusions. The observed pre- and post-equinox patterns can generally be explained by the strong erosion in the southern hemisphere that moves volatile-rich layers near the surface.
Andrew Westphal, a physicist and frequent user of Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source (ALS), answers a question from Oakland resident, Alex on comets and what they tell us about the early universe.
The computational power increases over the past decades have greatly enhanced the ability to simulate chemical reactions and understand ever more complex transformations. Tensor contractions are the fundamental computational building block of these simulations. These simulations have often been tied to one platform and restricted in generality by the interface provided to the user. The expanding prevalence of accelerators and researcher demands necessitate a more general approach which is not tied to specific hardware or requires contortion of algorithms to specific hardware platforms. In this paper we present COMET, a domain-specific programming language and compiler infrastructure for tensor contractions targeting heterogeneous accelerators. We present a system of progressive lowering through multiple layers of abstraction and optimization that achieves up to 1.98×speedup for 30 tensor contractions commonly used in computational chemistry and beyond.
The phase 2 randomized study SABR-COMET demonstrated that in patients with controlled primary tumors and 1 to 5 oligometastatic lesions, SABR was associated with improved progression-free survival (PFS) compared with standard of care (SoC), but with higher costs and treatment-related toxicities. The aim of this study was to assess the cost-effectiveness of SABR versus SoC in this setting.
In a consortium analysis of a large particle captured from the coma of comet 81P/Wild 2 by the Stardust spacecraft, we discuss the discovery of a field of fine-grained material (FGM) in contact with a large sulfide particle. The FGM was partially located in an embayment in the sulfide. Because of this, some of the FGM appears to have been protected from damage during hypervelocity capture in aerogel. Some of the FGM particles are indistinguishable in their characteristics from common components of chondritic-porous interplanetary dust particles, including glass with embedded metals and sulfides and equilibrated aggregates. The sulfide exhibits surprising Ni-rich lamellae, which may suggest that this particle experienced a long-duration heating event after its formation but before incorporation into Wild 2.
The COMET assembly at the National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC) at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) was used to irradiate twelve foils in September 2011. The intention of this irradiation was to measure 'peak yield' fission product activities, activation products, and so-called 'endpoint R values' for different foil materials in a non-thermal neutron spectrum. After irradiation, several of the foils were shipped to Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) for radiochemical analysis. The results from the non-destructive and radiochemical analyses of six of these foils are presented.