SEASONAL EFFECTS ON COMET NUCLEI EVOLUTION: ACTIVITY, INTERNAL STRUCTURE, AND DUST MANTLE FORMATION

Rotational properties can strongly influence a comet's evolution in terms of activity, dust mantling, and internal structure. In this paper, we investigate the effects of various rotation axis directions on the activity, internal structure, and dust mantling of cometary nuclei. The numerical code developed is able to reproduce different shapes and spin axis inclinations, taking into account both the latitudinal and the longitudinal variations of illumination, using a quasi-three-dimensional approach. The results obtained show that local variations in the dust and gas fluxes can be induced by the different spin axis directions and completely different behaviors of the comet evolution can result in the same cometary shape by using different obliquities of the models. The internal structures of cometary nuclei are also influenced by comet obliquity, as well as dust mantling. Gas and dust production rates show diversities related to the comet seasons