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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Towards a coupled activity-fallback model for comets I) 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko’s water activity from a microphysics model with dynamic dust-depth

  • N Attree1
  • Y Skorov2,3
  • P Gutiérrez1
  • O Groussin4
  • A Jindal5
  • R Marschall6
  • S P D Birch5
6 affiliations
  1. 1Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC) , Glorieta de la Astronomía s/n. 18008 Granada ,
  2. 2Institut für Geophysik und Extraterrestrische Physik, Technische Universität Braunschweig , Mendelssohnstr. 3, 38106 Braunschweig ,
  3. 3Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung , Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 3, 37077, Göttingen ,
  4. 4Aix Marseille Univ , CNRS, CNES, Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, Marseille ,
  5. 5Brown University Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, , Providence, RI ,
  6. 6Physikalisches Institut , Sidlerstr. 5, University of Bern, CH-3012, Bern ,
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Abstract

We apply a two-layer thermophysical model, with water sublimating from below a dust-crust with dynamically varying depth, to simulate the water outgassing rate, dust-ejections, and non-gravitational forces and torques of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The dust-depth is determined at each time-step by the balance of dehydration and subsurface pressure, leading to alternating ejections and crust build-up. This model is the first stage of implementing a fully coupled activity-fallback model that self-consistently incorporates dust-fallback into the ejection depth calculation, but already a number of conclusions can be drawn from these results. The two-layer model with only dehydration and ejections is able to reproduce much of the Rosetta outgassing, dust-ejection data and non-gravitational dynamics, particularly in the comet’s more primitive southern terrain. Best agreement is found for nucleus material made up of small aggregates (dagg ~ 1 mm) with not-too-high dust-to-ice ratios (δ ~ 2 − 8) and low average strengths (≲ 1 Pa) that decreases with depth. Disagreements between the observations and model are greatest for the northern-facing and dust-covered terrains, suggesting the importance of surface modification by fallback and material processing here, which will be the subject of investigation in the next paper.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{attree2026towards,
  title = {{Towards a coupled activity-fallback model for comets I) 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko’s water activity from a microphysics model with dynamic dust-depth}},
  author = {N Attree and Y Skorov and P Gutiérrez and O Groussin and A Jindal and R Marschall and S P D Birch},
  journal = {Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1093/mnras/stag1930},
  url = {https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag1930/8907354},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Towards a coupled activity-fallback model for comets I) 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko’s water activity from a microphysics model with dynamic dust-depth
AU  - N Attree
AU  - Y Skorov
AU  - P Gutiérrez
AU  - O Groussin
AU  - A Jindal
AU  - R Marschall
AU  - S P D Birch
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/10
JO  - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
DO  - 10.1093/mnras/stag1930
UR  - https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag1930/8907354
AB  - We apply a two-layer thermophysical model, with water sublimating from below a dust-crust with dynamically varying depth, to simulate the water outgassing rate, dust-ejections, and non-gravitational forces and torques of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The dust-depth is determined at each time-step by the balance of dehydration and subsurface pressure, leading to alternating ejections and crust build-up. This model is the first stage of implementing a fully coupled activity-fallback model that self-consistently incorporates dust-fallback into the ejection depth calculation, but already a number of conclusions can be drawn from these results. The two-layer model with only dehydration and ejections is able to reproduce much of the Rosetta outgassing, dust-ejection data and non-gravitational dynamics, particularly in the comet’s more primitive southern terrain. Best agreement is found for nucleus material made up of small aggregates (dagg ~ 1 mm) with not-too-high dust-to-ice ratios (δ ~ 2 − 8) and low average strengths (≲ 1 Pa) that decreases with depth. Disagreements between the observations and model are greatest for the northern-facing and dust-covered terrains, suggesting the importance of surface modification by fallback and material processing here, which will be the subject of investigation in the next paper.
SN  - 0035-8711
SN  - 1365-2966
ER  -