Evidence for Liquid Water on Comets

1. Evidence for Liquid Water on Comets Rob Sheldon, Richard Hoover SPIE SanDiego July 31, 2005

2. Harold’s Bane 1066 AD Her forðferde Eaduuard king. Harold eorl feng to ðam rice heold hit .xl. wucena. ænne dæg. her com Willelm gewann ængla land. her on ðison geare barn Cristes cyrice. [her atiwede cometa .xiii. kalendæ MAI. ]

3. Fred Whipple’s 1950 “Dirty Snowball” Model But equilibrium temperature of bodies in the inner solar system is > 273 K ! To keep the comet from melting, we apply some refrigeration principles: - white color (high albedo) - sublimation cooling - low spin rate - dust insulation (porous) But this condition is unstable! 1906-2004

4. Temperature Regulation If heat transport overwhelms refrigeration the pressure goes up, or should“black goo” / melt liquid plug reduce the permeability, then the lid goes on the pressure cooker. At high enough pressure, meltwater forms. This clogs more crust, permitting higher pressures, less sublimation cooling, higher heat transport in (waterlogged attic insulation)= more melting. E.g., Positive feedback (Yelle 2004) And the Rayleigh-Taylor instability can trigger a large increase in heat transport.

5. Rayleigh-Taylor Instability Contours (4/3p DG – w2)r = gravity at equator (x-axis) Sun at left Therefore mean temperature has a phase transition at critical Tc. This initiates a positive feedback sequence. Below Tc heat is pumped out on night side, above Tc heat pumped in. T=5hr w/cosine insolation Slow Rotator,T=10.4hr Fast Rotator, T=5h stable stable stable Stretched 10X y-axis scale below line 3min g=1hr 3min

6. Spin contribution to feedback • Melted dirty snow will segregate, dust drops “down” to to the equatorial surface. This thickens the crust, reduces the gas flow, and permits higher pressure and hence more liquid. Another feedback. • Dust has higher density than water/ice, so migration to equator will slow the rotation rate of the comet. When it drops below 1/Tc, it immediately refreezes. Thus RT drives a comet to Tc. • Liquid acts as a nutation damper, eliminating precession, giving higher spin in 1-axis, which promotes RT. A positive feedback. • Differentiation lowers the density of the interior, which enhances RT (lowers Tc.)

7. Concrete Crust • Dust at the surface reduces the albedo, both by color and roughness. This increases the temperature and heat flow into the comet. Crust “dries out” in original shape. • Meter thick rigid crust develops which can support observed vertical landscape. • Crust at equator may be cooler (due to R-T) than crust at the poles (no RT). This makes the RT “spread out” across the surface. • As water “leaks out” vapor pockets form in equatorial belt (geysers). • Collapse/explosion of vapor pockets lead to cratering, and eventually to prolate erosion of comet.

8. Activity & Fragmentation • Release of vapor and/or liquid from vapor pockets = geyser. See Yelle (Icarus04) Partial pressures can support liquid water. • When sufficient equatorial erosion has made comet prolate, liquid water facilitates a swap of rotation axes. Old polar regions had been under compression, now find themselves under tension = likely breakup scenario. • Weakest prolate crust is at the poles, where Borrelly had a stable geyser. Accident? Or global melting? • Breakup separation speed depends on aspect ratio and/or vapor pressure, both functions of light intensity.

9. A Comet’s Life a) c) b) Ice Liquid Vapor Spin Axis Cement d) e) g) f) Spin Flip

10. Birth: Density of comets Albedo-Area Kuiper Belt vs Oort Aphelion vs Perihelion Life: Spin rate Shape aspect ratio Brightness vs radial distance Active area, jets New vs. Old comets Outbursts Tail Shedding Death: Earth crossing asteroids Fireballs vs chondrites Tidal Force Breakup Issues before s/c era

11. Issues after s/c visits to P/Halley (& P/Borrelly & P/Wild-2) • Albedo: .02-.03 darker than soot! • Shape: very prolate! • Dust distribution across limb, size. • Small active area Jets: dayside, geyser-like • Temperature: 300-400K • Pinnacles, cliffs, craters, patterned ground • Deep Impact raised only dust

12. 1.1 Comet Density • Brownlee particles collected in the stratosphere thought to be from comets. • Comets are thought to have a density 1/10 that of water?

13. 1.2 Albedo • Before the spacecraft era, astronomers only knew the product of albedo & area. Comets were thought to have albedo in the .3-.7 range, like most asteroids. This made comets seem much smaller than was actually correct. They turned out to be blacker than soot! So much bigger too. And hotter.

14. 1.4 Aphelion vs Perihelion • Why is there a gap both for q < 1 and q> 3? • And nothing near hyberbolic? Comets, 1981

15. 1.4 Apogees in Theory & Life Theory Weighted Observations Comets, 1981

16. 2.1 Spin by jets • Why do comets spin slower than asteroids? • Why do comets all spin much slower than breakup? than RT? Comets, 1981

17. 2.2 Spin from Stellar obs. CCD camera observations at large distance “stellar” lightcurves for prolate objects ApJ 1988

18. 2.3 Activity • The dust follows a 1/r4 law, but gas doesn’t? • Post<>Pre-perihelion? Comets, 1981

19. 2.4 Active area & jets Why is post-perihelion different from pre (both in absolute and r dependence)? • Why was Kohoutek so disappointing? (Methane ice, or CO ice, etc. • Some phase transition occurred, but no one is sure what. Skylab, H-corona, 1973

20. 2.5 New vs Old Comets New are dustier, but old are supposed to lose their volatiles! If gas/dust ratios are fixed, why aren’t they the same? Hale-Bopp, 1997

21. 2.6 Outbursts? • What would cause 8 order of magnitude changes in brightness P/Schwassmann-Wachmann? Collisions? But then how does the comet survive? • Halley had a 300-fold increase in brightness in 1991, while at 14.3AU. Collisions don’t seem to explain it, nor were there any convenient solar flares. • Tempel-1 had 2 outbursts during the week before collision.

22. 2.7 Tail Shedding • Shouldn’t they occur at every sector crossing? Why so infrequent then? Comets, 1981

23. 3.2 Tensile Strength Comets, 1981 • Do fireballs determine the tensile strength of comets? Comets, 1981

24. 3.3 Tidal Breakup? Comets, 1981

25. 4.1 Black Prolate P/Halley • Blacker than the coma behind it! • Jets! • Prolate • Not outgassing • 400K • Little dust Courtesy Giotto

26. 4.2 Prolate Shape (P/Borrelly) Courtesy Deep Space 1

27. Prolate P/Wild-2 Stereo pairs showing top panel with large projection out of the frame; middle panel with deep canyon; bottom panel with high pinnacles in the “crater” at the bottom. Courtesy Stardust Courtesy Stardust

28. 4.4 Geysers Deep Impact Giotto Stardust DS-1

29. 4.6 Pinnacles Stardust

30. 4.7 Deep Impact Outbursts 41 hours

31. What, No Water? 50ms frames

32. Spin Axis Estimate 1.7 deg motion of crater 3.0 deg motion of “rim” +

33. Insolation vs Axis • Putative pole • Impact site • Pole remains in sunlight, as does impact site x +

34. Evacuation of 9P/Tempel-1 g • From the wet comet=critical period calculation, T=41hr, D=20kg/m3. That’s really fluffy snow! And completely inconsistent with cratering data. • But that assumes uniform density. If the comet has vapor pockets, then RT instability still operates. If pristine comet has D=200 kg/m3, we estimate 90% of the interior is vapor, 10% pristine.

35. Conclusions • Comets are in an unstable thermal equilibrium as they enter the inner solar system. We believe many factors contribute to their spontaneous phase change from sublimation cooled to “wet” comets. • Wet comet theory explains many unsolved puzzles of cometary dynamics. • Deep Impact results seem to show no water, and we argue why this result is still consistent with the wet comet theory. • Therefore the major objection to life on comets, the absence of water, appears less defensible.

36. Planetary Protection • “Planetary Protection Matters” J. Rummel, NASA HQ, and L. Billings, SETI (Cospar 8/04) Planetary protection is the term given to the policies and practices that protect other solar system bodies…from terrestrial life, and that protect the Earth from life that may be brought back…. The cost of meeting stringent Category V requirements on a Mars surface sample return mission is estimated at about 5-10% of the entire mission budget. • Genesis category I? Stardust category II? • SpaceNews 9/20/04 “Genesis Mishap Renews Debate About Mars Sample Return”. “Genesis did not have a planetary protection requirement for containment.” Rummel. “Everyone agrees that we must be as careful as possible with the Mars sample,..The question is whether we want to spend billions are tens of billions of dollars to make the risk even more infinitesimal.” Mendell

37. References: • www.panspermia.org • Comets, ed. L. Wilkening, 1981 • Physics and Chemistry of Comets, ed. W.Huebner 1990. • ApJ 1988 Jewett and Meech • Icarus issue on Borelly 2004. • http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov • R. Hoover et al. SPIE proceedings 5555

38. Birth • Oort cloud. Volatile rich. Coalescence from primordial nebula. Carbon rich. (Why?!) Loose, weakly bound gravitational objects 1-100km in size. Possible 26Al heating may have caused partial melting. Cosmic ray transformed outer cm-thick crust. Black goo / burnt toast. • Tensile strength of interior estimated 1-10 kPa. (Tidal stress breakup, fireballs) In comparison plaster of paris has a tensile strength 0.6 MPa, ice around 1.6 MPa. Comets are 200x weaker than solid ice!

39. Life • Orbit is deflected from circular to elliptical • As comet approaches the “snow line” at 5AU it begins to vaporize and form a tail. Several tons/s loss of mass. • The tail grows as it nears the sun, produces dust & plasma tails, and dynamic effects due to jets and outbursts. • May break up at any point in orbit. • On receding from the sun, the tails shrink and the comet becomes “stellar” beyond 5AU. • May get trapped or deflected by Jupiter.

40. Death • Volatiles are lost and comet looks asteroidal • Crust of non-volatile material gets too thick mimicking the loss of volatiles. • Comet fragments (tidal forces, spin rate?). • Comet interacts with Jupiter and is either ejected, or trapped. • Comet collides with another body, fireballs (spectacular Shoemaker-Levy-9 collision) • Comet leaves on a hyperbolic orbit

41. Summary • 1.1-4 Water explains why fireballs break up early-I.e. Columbia. Crustal differentiation with water explains albedo. W. explains rapid diffusion of aphelion. • 2.1-7 W. explains slow spinrate, prolate shape, and lightcurves. W. explains asymmetry around perihelion, gas production with wrong radial dependence, and existence of jets. W. explains why new comets (dry, subliming) are brighter than old (wet, crusty). W. explains non-tidal fragmentation. W. may explain rapid brightening by collision (splashing=large surface area). W. may explain reduced tail-shedding. • And the $64,000 question: What about Life?