CAOSP abstracts, Volume: 33, No.: 1, year: 2003
- Author(s): Neslušan, L.
- Journal: Contributions of the Astronomical Observatory Skalnaté Pleso, vol. 33, no. 1, p. 5-20.
- Date: 02/2003
- Title: Observed sizes of cometary nuclei. A summary
- Keyword(s): comets, cometary nuclei
- Pages: 5 -- 20
Abstract:
The nuclear effective radii of both short-period (practically identical
to the Jupiter-family) and long-period comets, as have been determined by
many independent authors using several methods, are summarized. Despite the
observational selection effects, it is possible to conclude that the
observed nuclei of long-period (LP) comets are generally larger than their
short-period (SP) counterparts. The average radius of SP-comet (LP-comet)
nucleus is 2.3 km (8.9 km). The corresponding average mass of the nucleus
is 2 × 1014 . ρ/ρ5 kg (1 ×
1016 . ρ/ρ5 kg),
where ρ is the mean density of cometary nucleus and
ρ5 = 500 kg m-3. Because of the determination uncertainty,
the average radius can be a value from interval ranging from 2.1 to 2.7 km
(from 7.4 to 9.2 km). The median radius of SP comets is less than about
2 km, whilst that of LP comets is larger than about 4 km. The slope index
of cumulative distribution of the observed radii is rather uncertain due to
very low-numerous samples of data available. It is probably a value
ranging from 2.67 to 3.05 for SP comets and from 1.59 to 2.21 for LP comets.
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