Heat and Gas Diffusion in Comet Nuclei (pdf file 5.5 MB) - ISSI

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Foreword
The content of this book should not only be applied to and tested against
future cometary data, but it can also be used for improving the interpretation
of available data. In this way, for example, one could perhaps decide
whether formaldehyde, found in abundance in the coma of Comet Halley,
was stored in the nucleus as POM, the formaldehyde polymer. Another
open question concerns molecular nitrogen. In the coma of Comet Halley
the abundance of N2 is very low relative to CO, although in the solar nebula
both these molecules were major constituents.
The work of the “Comet Nucleus-Coma Boundary Layer Model Team”
has been an important part of ISSI’s activity in the field of cometary research.
It should be seen as continuation of the earlier Workshop on the
Composition and Origin of Cometary Materials held in September 1998 and
published as Volume 8 of the Space Science Series of ISSI. Another volume
on comets is in preparation for this series. The present book will be followed
by another ISSI Scientific Report on interactive comet coma modelling.
Roger-Maurice Bonnet
Johannes Geiss