Abstract
Two types of cometary nuclei are considered: a homogeneous icy nucleus and an icy nucleus covered with a dispersive surface layer, 1 cm thick and having poor heat conductivity. The temperature of the evaporating ice surface of a nucleus rotating in a period of 6 hours about an axis perpendicular to the orbital plane was determined by numerical integration of the equation of heat conduction in the first case and of the Stefan problem in the second. For a nucleus of radius 105 cm and mass of 3.8 × 1015 g the reactive force was found to be about 107 dyn in either case, and the secular change in mean motion is of the order of the observed values. For the homogeneous nucleus the dependence of the reactive force on heliocentric distance is obtained.
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