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A Simple Model for the Secular Light Curve of Comet C/1996 B2 Hyakutake

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2010

Eduardo Rondón
Affiliation:
Centro de Física Fundamental, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida 5101, Venezuela email: erondon@ula.ve
Ignacio Ferrín
Affiliation:
Centro de Física Fundamental, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida 5101, Venezuela email: erondon@ula.ve
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Abstract

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The secular light curves of comets (Ferrín, 2005) give a large amount of physical information on the cometary nucleus. We have developed a model that allows the prediction of a secular light curve, from which we derive parameters like the orientation of the rotational axis (I, φ) and optical thickness of the cometary coma. The model is based on the paper published by (Cowan & A'Hearn, 1979). To do the calculation we found a correlation between the water production rate and the reduced magnitude. We obtain probable orientations of the nucleus pole for several combinations of parameters for comet C/1996 B2 Hyakutake.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2010

References

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