Abstract
The present paper critically discusses the method of detection, the magnitude and the rate of occurrence of sudden disturbances in the motions of some short-period comets. The disturbances have recently been suggested as potential indicators of collisions between the comets and interplanetary boulders—minor objects whose existence was predicted by M. Harwit in 1967. The character of explosive phenomena, caused by an impact of such a boulder on a comet’s nuclear surface, depends significantly on the surface texture of the target body. To advance our understanding of the impact mechanism, a method is suggested which would supply a good deal of the missing information about the structure and optical properties of nuclear surfaces from precise photometric observations of cometary nuclei at large solar distances.
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