AbstractThe conditions in a comet are simulated and the optical picture of the coma and the tail is plotted by use of a computer program which was developed according to Whipple's theory. The model includes local and global variations of evaporation, brightness, repulsive forces, thermal velocity and lifetime of the compounds. With this method the comets Halley, Ikeya and Arend/Roland were simulated.In order to match the computer pictures with the real pictures it was necessary to assume a polytropic expansion and acceleration of the evaporated comet material. The final velocity will be much higher than the thermal velocity of the evaporated molecules.
Computer generated pictures of comets
Acta Astronautica ; 6 , 5-6 ; 657-667
1978-04-28
11 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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