Comets and chemical composition
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Authors
Delanoye, S.N.
De Keyser, J.
Discipline
Physical sciences
Subject
Database systems
Mathematical models
Phase composition
Problem solving
Reaction rates
Solar system
Chemical modeling
Coma chemistry
Comets
Stars
Audience
Scientific
Date
2007Metadata
Show full item recordDescription
It is commonly believed that comets are made of primordial material. As a consequence, they can reveal more information about the origin of our solar system. To interpret the coma composition measurements of comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko that will be collected by the Rosetta mission, models of the coma chemistry have to be constructed. However, programming the chemistry of a cometary coma is extremely complex due to the large number of species and reactions involved. Moreover, such a program needs to be very flexible as one may want to extend, change, or update the set of species, reactions, and reaction rates. Therefore, we developed software to manage a database of species and reactions and to generate code automatically to compute source/loss balances. This database includes the data from the UMIST database and the ion-molecule reactions collected by V.G. Anicich. To use all these databases together, a lot of practical problems need to be solved, but the result is an enormous source of information about chemical reactions that can be used in chemical models, not only for comets but also for other applications.
Citation
Delanoye, S.N.; De Keyser, J. (2007). Comets and chemical composition. , Space Science Reviews, Vol. 130, Issue 1-4, 73-78, DOI: 10.1007/s11214-007-9210-6.Identifiers
scopus: 2-s2.0-34748897747
Type
Article
Peer-Review
Yes
Language
eng