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Halley's Comet: its Origin and Composition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2016

A. J. R. Prentice*
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, Monash University

Extract

The fast-approaching return of Halley's comet in early 1986 has awakened fresh interest in comets and their role in the origin and evolution of the solar system. Some 2 years ago I suggested (Prentice 1983a, referred to as P83a) that the Sun may possess at its centre a comet-like core of mass about 1%M which had accreted from a swarm of grains and cometesimals which once occupied the interstellar cloud fragment from which the Sun had formed. The existence of such a central chemical inhomogeneity leads to a new class of evolved solar models which have a neutrino capture rate of 2.1 SNU, in line with the Davis experiment (Cleveland et al. 1981).

Type
Contributions
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 1985

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