PDS: The Planetary Atmospheres Node| 01-005 |
ROSS-00 NRA 00-OSS-01
Date Due: 4/28/2000
|
This proposal shall be used and disclosed for evaluation purposes only, and a copy of this Government notice shall be applied to any reproduction or abstract thereof. Any authorized restrictive notices that the submitter places on this proposal shall also be strictly complied with. Disclosure of this proposal for any reason outside the Government evaluation purposes shall be made only to the extent authorized by the Government. |
| Proposal Type: New Proposal |
| Proposal Category: Comets |
| Major Equipment Proposal? No |
| Do you intend to submit an Education/Public Outreach (E/PO) proposal? No |
| Proposal Title: |
| Physics of Comets |
| Abbreviated Proposal Title: |
| Physics of Comets |
| Principal Investigator: |
Scientific Element Asteroids, Comets, and Satellites; Earth and Space Sciences Division, 183-501 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology 4800 Oak Grove Drive Pasadena, California 91109-8099 U.S.A. Phone: (818)354-7589 Fax: (818)354-0966 E-mail: zs@sek.jpl.nasa.gov |
| Signature | Date |
| _____________________________________ | ____________ |
| Co-Investigators and Collaborators: | |||
| Type | Name | Affiliation | |
| Sci Co-I | Dr. Paul W. Chodas | Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A. | Paul.W.Chodas@jpl.nasa.gov |
| Sci Collab | Dr. Hermann Boehnhardt | European Southern Observatory, Santiago, Chile | hboehnha@eso.org |
Proposal Summary:
Overall objective: Better understand aging and gradual disintegration of comets by physical processes that involve the release of massive (boulder-sized and larger) fragments from the nucleus. In order to accomplish this, the specific objectives are to investigate and/or determine: (i) the process of cometary splitting (tidal vs nontidal); (ii) secondary and higher-order nucleus fragments (breakup sequence and hierarchy); (iii) the formation of striations in the dust tails of comets as products of disintegrated boulder-sized parent objects; (iv) the existence of gravitationally bound companions (satellites), their orbital evolution and end states; (v) the mass of a comet (for the first time ever); (vi) possible impacts of large-sized orbiting debris on the nucleus as a mechanism for triggering some cometary outbursts; and (vii) dust fragmentation as evidence for poor cohesion and a low tensile strength of cometary material. The methods to be applied will be based on extensive and entirely independent libraries of relevant computer codes, one developed by Principal Investigator, the other by Co-Investigator. Nevertheless, new software will be developed, especially (but not solely) in the effort to determine the relative orbit of a satellite nucleus about the principal nucleus. The proposed research addresses tasks that are seldom investigated, although they are critical for our understanding mass-loss processes in comets and their impact on comet survival. Our work is profoundly responsive to NASA's objectives for the exploration of small bodies by (i) providing information on physical conditions in atmospheres and tails of comets (dust fragmentation, disintegration processes, fragments' nature, properties, and evolution); (ii) characterizing the dust environment and hazard that comet missions will encounter; and (iii) addressing issues of efficiency and intrinsic scientific value in interpreting observations of very high spatial resolution.
Certification of Compliance with Applicable Executive Orders and U.S. Code
By submitting the proposal identified in this Cover Sheet/Proposal Summary in response to this NRA or AO, the Authorizing Official of the proposing institution (or the individual proposer if there is no proposing institution) as identified below:
Willful provision of false information in this proposal and/or its supporting documents, or in reports required under an ensuing award, is a criminal offense (U.S. Code, Title 18, Section 1001).
