Abstract Direct images of the nucleus of comet Halley have revealed an extremely structured and dark surface. This low albedo arises from, at least, two plausible possibilities, i.e. (1) absorption of incident light by non-volatile crust of dark material, and (2) multiple reflection of incident light due to the roughness of the nucleus surface, with a dimension of the order of visual wavelength or greater. We have investigated a variation of the albedo on the illuminated disk of cometary nucleus covered with rough surface consisting of absorbing material. It is found that the albedo of the nucleus significantly decreases as the degree of roughness increases. In addition, the albedo near the limb is roughly one order of magnitude smaller than that in the central part of the illuminated disk. Our treatment is applicable to examine the micro-structure on the surface of the airless body by remote sensing.
Surface albedo of cometary nucleus
Advances in Space Research ; 9 , 3 ; 77-80
1989-01-01
4 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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