Next: Thermal
conductivity of amorphous Up: No
Title Previous: Characteristics
of a Cometary
Physical quantities that govern the thermal history of the ice of a
cometary nucleus is 1) thermal conductivity of amorphous ice, 2) bulk
thermal conductivity of the nucleus, 3) the rate of heating by decay
of radiogenic nuclides, which are contained in the silicate core, and 4) latent
heat released at transition of amorphous ice to crystalline ice. We shall
discuss these quantities in the following subsections.