Comments on 'Gas release from comets' and related trapped-gas experiments

Abstract

The numerous variables influencing trapped-gas experiment results based on cometary ice analogs are presently discussed in view of the Notesco et al. (1991) data on Kr-trapping and release by H2O ice. Attention is drawn to the questionable tennability of a linear relation proposed between the thickness of the ice and the gas retained beyond the amorphous-to-cubic phase change of H2O. Exacting care is required in the application of laboratory results to cometary phenomena, rendering definitive conclusions extremely elusive.