***********************************************************
OATS-DAUT SEMINAR
***********************************************************
Speaker:
Marco Fulle (INAF-OATs)
Title:
Comets
***********************************************************
Abstract:
ESA probe Rosetta will reach its target,
short-period comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, in 2013, and will be the
first spacecraft orbiting around a comet nucleus to monitor its
evolution during the approach to perihelion (Aug 2015). Many
spacecrafts have already visited other short-period comets, and will
probably visit others before 2013, but all during fast flybys lasting
few hours. Therefore, almost nothing is known of the complete 3D shape
of the imaged nuclei, of how the gas and dust environment are coupled
to the nucleus surface, and how they evolve on time-scales longer than
hours. Although it is impossible to image from the Earth comet nuclei,
ground-based observations only allow us to monitor the time evolution
of cometary activity, which is crucial to plan space missions. Here we
focus on the best available models providing the time-evolution of the
dust environment, probably the most ill-defined topic of cometary
science.
***********************************************************