Modeling of the cometary nucleus-coma interface region

Abstract

A well-developed dusty cometary atmosphere extends to distances over 4 orders of magnitude larger than the size of the nucleus. Pre-encounter models of the inner coma were based on the assumption that a spherically symmetric description was adequate to describe the dust-gas interaction region. Recent observational evidence together with a new generation of multidimensional theoretical models demonstrate that the inner cometary environment is far from spherical symmetry and a number of unexpected phenomena (dust jet broadening, subsolar dust spike formation, etc.) might play a significant role in this region.