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History of the Dust Released by Comets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Extract

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The origin of the Zodiacal cloud has been attributed to an influx of cometary debris which maintains a stable meteoritic complex (Whipple, 1955). Objections to a cometary origin of the Zodiacal cloud were presented by Harwit (1963) without denting the cometary theory (Whipple, 1967). Since then, the Finson-Probstein theory of dust production has been applied successfully to dusty comets. As a consequence size distributions of dust particles have been deduced for Arend Roland, 1957 III, (Finson and Probstein, 1968), Seki-Lines, 1962 III, (Jambor, 1973), Bennett, 1970 II, (Sekanina and Miller, 1973) and Kohoutek, 1973 f. (Jambor unpublished). Only careful consideration of the size distribution of the dust from periodic comets can resolve the problem of the origin of the Zodiacal cloud.. The following reexamines the production and history of the dust released from periodic comets using the Finson-Probstein theory and compares it to the size distribution of dust deduced from the above mentioned comets.

Type
Part II
Copyright
Copyright © NASA 1976

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