arXiv subjects

Jürgen Blum

Publications and source records attributed to Jürgen Blum.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Spectrophotometric evidence for a metal-bearing, carbonaceous, and pristine interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS

3I/ATLAS is only the second confirmed cometary object known to enter the Solar System from interstellar space. Cosmogonic considerations suggest that this body may possess relatively high tensile strength and a substantial metal fraction. We present photometric observations along its inbound trajectory toward perihelion, together with a spectroscopic comparison to pristine carbonaceous chondrites from the NASA Antarctic collection. The spectral similarities indicate that 3I/ATLAS may be a primitive carbonaceous object, likely enriched in native metal and undergoing significant aqueous alteration during its approach to the Sun, experiencing cryovolcanism as we could expect for a pristine Trans-Neptunian Object. We propose that the combination of elevated metal abundance and abundant water ice can account for the unusual coma morphology and chemical products reported to date. To do so, corrosion of fine-grained metal grains can originate energetic Fischer-Tropsch reactions, generating specific chemical products into the coma that are not so common in other comets because most of them formed in the outer solar system and didn't inherited so much metal. Interstellar objects such as 3I/ATLAS provide rare opportunities to investigate physical and chemical processes in distant minor bodies of our own Solar System, including trans-Neptunian objects and Oort Cloud comets.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2024

Localised ejection of dust and chunks on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: testing how comets work

We extend an existing thermophysical activity model of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko to include pressure buildup inside the pebbles making up the nucleus. We test various quantities of H$_{2}$O and CO$_{2}$, in order to simulate the material inside and outside of proposed water enriched bodies (WEBs). We find that WEBs can reproduce the peak water flux observed by Rosetta, but that the addition of a time-resolved heat-flow reduces the water fluxes away from perihelion as compared to the previously assumed equilibrium model. Our modelled WEBs eject dust continuously but with a rate that is much higher than the observed erosion and mass-loss, thus requiring an active area smaller than the total comet surface area or very large quantities of dust fallback. When simulating the CO$_{2}$-rich non-WEB material, we only find the ejection of large chunks under specific conditions (e.g.~low diffusivities between the pebbles or intense insolation at southern summer), whilst we also find CO$_{2}$ outgassing rates that are much greater than observed. This is a general problem in models where CO$_{2}$ drives erosion, alongside difficulties in simultaneously ejecting chunks from deep whilst eroding the surface layer. We therefore conclude that ejection of chunks by CO$_{2}$ must be a localised phenomenon, occurring separately in space or time from surface erosion and water emission. Simulating the global production rates of gas, dust, and chunks from a comet thus remains challenging, while the activity mechanism is shown to be very sensitive to the material structure (i.e.~porosity and diffusivity) at various scales.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2024

The stratification of regolith on celestial objects

All atmosphere-less planetary bodies are covered with a dust layer, the so-called regolith, which determines the optical, mechanical and thermal properties of their surface. These properties depend on the regolith material, the size distribution of the particles it consists of, and the porosity to which these particles are packed. We performed experiments in parabolic flights to determine the gravity dependency of the packing density of regolith for solid-particle sizes of 60 $μ$m and 1 mm as well as for 100-250 $μ$m-sized agglomerates of 1.5 $μ$m-sized solid grains. We utilized g-levels between 0.7 m s$^{-2}$ and 18 m s$^{-2}$ and completed our measurements with experiments under normal gravity conditions. Based on previous experimental and theoretical literature and supported by our new experiments, we developed an analytical model to calculate the regolith stratification of celestial rocky and icy bodies and estimated the mechanical yields of the regolith under the weight of an astronaut and a spacecraft resting on these objects.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2024

New versus past silica crush curve experiments: application to Dimorphos benchmarking impact simulations

Crush curves are of fundamental importance to numerical modeling of small and porous astrophysical bodies. The empirical literature often measures them for silica grains, and different studies have used various methods, sizes, textures, and pressure conditions. Here we review past studies and supplement further experiments in order to develop a full and overarching understanding of the silica crush curve behavior. We suggest a new power-law function that can be used in impact simulations of analog materials similar to micro-granular silica. We perform a benchmarking study to compare this new crush curve to the parametric quadratic crush curve often used in other studies, based on the study case of the DART impact onto the asteroid Dimorphos. We find that the typical quadratic crush curve parameters do not closely follow the silica crushing experiments, and as a consequence they under (over) estimate compression close (far) from the impact site. The new crush curve presented here, applicable to pressures between a few hundred Pa and up to 1.1 GPa, might therefore be more precise. Additionally, it is not calibrated by case-specific parameters, and can be used universally for comet- or asteroid-like bodies, given an assumed composition similar to micro-granular silica.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2024

A link between the size and composition of comets

All cometary nuclei that formed in the early Solar System incorporated radionuclides and therefore were subject to internal radiogenic heating. Previous work predicts that if comets have a pebble-pile structure internal temperature build-up is enhanced due to very low thermal conductivity, leading to internal differentiation. An internal thermal gradient causes widespread sublimation and migration of either ice condensates, or gases released from amorphous ice hosts during their crystallisation. Overall, the models predict that the degree of differentiation and re-distribution of volatile species to a shallower near-surface layer depends primarily on nucleus size. Hence, we hypothesise that cometary activity should reveal a correlation between the abundance of volatile species and the size of the nucleus. To explore this hypothesis we have conducted a thorough literature search for measurements of the composition and size of cometary nuclei, compiling these into a unified database. We report a statistically significant correlation between the measured abundance of CO/H$_{2}$O and the size of cometary nuclei. We further recover the measured slope of abundance as a function of size, using a theoretical model based on our previous thermophysical models, invoking re-entrapment of outward migrating high volatility gases in the near-surface pristine amorphous ice layers. This model replicates the observed trend and supports the theory of internal differentiation of cometary nuclei by early radiogenic heating. We make our database available for future studies, and we advocate for collection of more measurements to allow more precise and statistically significant analyses to be conducted in the future.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2023

Simulation and experiment of gas diffusion in a granular bed

The diffusion of gas through porous material is important to understand the physical processes underlying cometary activity. We study the diffusion of a rarefied gas (Knudsen regime) through a packed bed of monodisperse spheres via experiments and numerical modelling, providing an absolute value of the diffusion coefficient and compare it to published analytical models. The experiments are designed to be directly comparable to numerical simulations, by using precision steel beads, simple geometries, and a trade-off of the sample size between small boundary effects and efficient computation. For direct comparison, the diffusion coefficient is determined in Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) simulations, yielding a good match with experiments. This model is further-on used on a microscopic scale, which cannot be studied in experiments, to determine the mean path of gas molecules and its distribution, and compare it against an analytical model. Scaling with sample properties (particle size, porosity) and gas properties (molecular mass, temperature) is consistent with analytical models. As predicted by these, results are very sensitive on sample porosity and we find that a tortuosity $q(\varepsilon)$ depending linearly on the porosity $\varepsilon$ can well reconcile the analytical model with experiments and simulations. Mean paths of molecules are close to those described in the literature, but their distribution deviates from the expectation for small path lengths. The provided diffusion coefficients and scaling laws are directly applicable to thermophysical models of idealised cometary material.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2023

A quantitative description of comet 67P's dust and gas production remains enigmatic

The mechanism of dust emission from a cometary nucleus is still an open question and thermophysical models have problems reproducing outgassing and dust productions rates simultaneously. In this study, we investigate the capabilities of a rather simple thermophysical model to match observations from Rosetta instruments at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and the influence of model variations. We assume a macro-porous surface structure composed of pebbles and investigate the influence of different model assumptions. Besides the scenario in which dust layers are ejected when the vapour pressure overcomes the tensile strength, we use artificial ejection mechanisms, depending on ice-depletion of layers. We find that dust activity following the pressure criterion is only possible for reduced tensile strength values or reduced gas diffusivity and is inconsistent with observed outgassing rates, because activity is driven by CO$_2$. Only when we assume that dust activity is triggered when the layer is completely depleted in H$_2$O, the ratio of CO$_2$ to H$_2$O outgassing rates is in the expected order of magnitude. However, the dust-to-H$_2$O ratio is never reproduced. Only with decreased gas diffusivity, the slope of the H$_2$O outgassing rate is matched, however absolute values are too low. To investigate maximum reachable pressures, we adapted our model equivalent to a gas-impermeable dust structure. Here, pressures exceeding the tensile strength by orders of magnitude are possible. Maximum activity distances of $3.1 \,\mathrm{au}$, $8.2 \,\mathrm{au}$, and $74 \,\mathrm{au}$ were estimated for H$_2$O-, CO$_2$-, and CO-driven activity of $1 \,\mathrm{cm}$-sized dust, respectively. In conclusion, the mechanism behind dust emission remains unclear.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2022

Comets and Planetesimal Formation

In this chapter, we review the processes involved in the formation of planetesimals and comets. We will start with a description of the physics of dust grain growth and how this is mediated by gas-dust interactions in planet-forming disks. We will then delve into the various models of planetesimal formation, describing how these planetesimals form as well as their resulting structure. In doing so, we focus on and compare two paradigms for planetesimal formation: the gravitational collapse of particle over-densities (which can be produced by a variety of mechanisms) and the growth of particles into planetesimals via collisional and gravitational coagulation. Finally, we compare the predictions from these models with data collected by the Rosetta and New Horizons missions and that obtained via observations of distant Kuiper Belt Objects.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2022

Sub-mm/mm optical properties of real protoplanetary matter derived from Rosetta/MIRO observations of comet 67P

Optical properties are required for the correct understanding and modelling of protoplanetary and debris discs. By assuming that comets are the most pristine bodies in the solar system, our goal is to derive optical constants of real protoplanetary material. We determine the complex index of refraction of the near-surface material of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by fitting the sub-millimetre/millimetre observations of the thermal emission of the comet's sub-surface made by the Microwave Instrument for the Rosetta Orbiter (MIRO) with synthetic temperatures derived from a thermophysical model and radiative-transfer models. According to the two major formation scenarios of comets, we model the sub-surface layers to consist of pebbles as well as of homogeneously packed dust grains. In the case of a homogeneous dusty surface material, we find a solution for the length-absorption coefficient of $α\approx 0.22~\mathrm{cm^{-1}}$ for a wavelength of 1.594 mm and $α\geq 3.84~\mathrm{cm^{-1}}$ for a wavelength of 0.533 mm and a constant thermal conductivity of $0.006~\mathrm{Wm^{-1}K^{-1}}$. For the pebble scenario, we find for the pebbles and a wavelength of 1.594 mm a complex refractive index of $n = (1.074 - 1.256) + \mathrm{i} \, (2.580 - 7.431)\cdot 10^{-3}$ for pebble radii between 1 mm and 6 mm. Taking into account other constraints, our results point towards a pebble makeup of the cometary sub-surface with pebble radii between 3 mm and 6 mm. The derived real part of the refractive index is used to constrain the composition of the pebbles and their volume filling factor. The optical and physical properties are discussed in the context of protoplanetary and debris disc observations.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2022

TEMPus VoLA: the Timed Epstein Multi-pressure Vessel at Low Accelerations

The field of planetary system formation relies extensively on our understanding of the aerodynamic interaction between gas and dust in protoplanetary disks. Of particular importance are the mechanisms triggering fluid instabilities and clumping of dust particles into aggregates, and their subsequent inclusion into planetesimals. We introduce the Timed Epstein Multi-pressure vessel at Low Accelerations (TEMPusVoLA), which is an experimental apparatus for the study of particle dynamics and rarefied gas under micro-gravity conditions. This facility contains three experiments dedicated to studying aerodynamic processes, i) the development of pressure gradients due to collective particle-gas interaction, ii) the drag coefficients of dust aggregates with variable particle-gas velocity, iii) the effect of dust on the profile of a shear flow and resultant onset of turbulence. The approach is innovative with respect to previous experiments because we access an untouched parameter space in terms of dust particle packing fraction, and Knudsen, Stokes, and Reynolds numbers. The mechanisms investigated are also relevant for our understanding of the emission of dust from active surfaces such as cometary nuclei and new experimental data will help interpreting previous datasets (Rosetta) and prepare future spacecraft observations (Comet Interceptor). We report on the performance of the experiments, which has been tested over the course of multiple flight campaigns. The project is now ready to benefit from additional flight campaigns, to cover a wide parameter space. The outcome will be a comprehensive framework to test models and numerical recipes for studying collective dust particle aerodynamics under space-like conditions.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2022

Formation of Comets

Questions regarding how primordial or pristine the comets of the solar system are have been an ongoing controversy. In this review, we describe comets' physical evolution from dust and ice grains in the solar nebula to the contemporary small bodies in the outer solar system. This includes the phases of dust agglomeration, the formation of planetesimals, their thermal evolution and the outcomes of collisional processes. We use empirical evidence about comets, in particular from the Rosetta Mission to comet 67P/Churyumov--Gerasimenko, to draw conclusions about the possible thermal and collisional evolution of comets.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2022

Collisional properties of cm-sized high-porosity ice and dust aggregates and their applications to early planet formation

In dead zones of protoplanetary discs, it is assumed that micrometre-sized particles grow Brownian, sediment to the midplane and drift radially inward. When collisional compaction sets in, the growing aggregates collect slower and therefore dynamically smaller particles. This sedimentation and growth phase of highly porous ice and dust aggregates is simulated with laboratory experiments in which we obtained mm- to cm-sized ice aggregates with a porosity of 90\% as well as cm-sized dust agglomerates with a porosity of 85\%. We modelled the growth process during sedimentation in an analytical calculation to compute the agglomerate sizes when they reach the midplane of the protoplanetary disc. In the midplane, the dust particles form a thin dense layer and gain relative velocities by, e.g., the streaming instability or the onset of shear turbulence. To investigate also these collisions, we performed additional laboratory drop tower experiments with the high-porosity aggregates formed in the sedimentary-growth experiments and determined their mechanical parameters, including their sticking threshold velocity, which is important for their further collisional evolution on their way to form planetesimals. Finally, we developed a method to calculate the packing-density-dependent fundamental properties of our dust and ice agglomerates, the Young's modulus, the Poisson ratio, the shear viscosity and the bulk viscosity from compression measurements. With these parameters, it was possible to derive the coefficient of restitution which fits our measurements. In order to physically describe these outcomes, we applied a collision model. With this model, predictions about general dust-aggregate collisions are possible.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2021

Learning about comets from the study of mass distributions and fluxes of meteoroid streams

Meteor physics can provide new clues about the size, structure, and density of cometary disintegration products, establishing a bridge between different research fields. From meteor magnitude data we have estimated the mass distribution of meteoroids from different cometary streams by using the relation between the luminosity and the mass obtained by Verniani (1973). These mass distributions are in the range observed for dust particles released from comets 1P/Halley and 81P/Wild 2 as measured from spacecraft. From the derived mass distributions, we have integrated the incoming mass for the most significant meteor showers. By comparing the mass of the collected Interplanetary Dust Particles (IDPs) with that derived for cometary meteoroids a gap of several orders of magnitude is encountered. The largest examples of fluffy particles are clusters of IDPs no larger than 100 micrometers in size (or 5x10^-7 g in mass) while the largest cometary meteoroids are centimeter-sized objects. Such gaps can be explained by the fragmentation in the interstellar medium or in the atmosphere of the original cometary particles. As an application of the mass distribution computations we describe the significance of the disruption of fragile comets in close approaches to Earth as a more efficient (and probably more frequent) way to deliver volatiles than direct impacts. We finally apply our model to quantify the flux of meteoroids from different meteoroid streams, and to describe the main physical processes contributing to the progressive decay of cometary meteoroids in the interplanetary medium.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2021

Observations of the long-lasting activity of the distant Comets 29P Schwassmann-Wachmann 1, C/2003 WT42 (LINEAR) and C/2002 VQ94 (LINEAR)

We investigated three comets, which are active at large heliocentric distances, using observations obtained at the 6-m BTA telescope (SAO RAS, Russia) in the photometric mode of the focal reducer SCORPIO. The three comets, 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1, C/2003 WT42 (LINEAR), and C/2002 VQ94 (LINEAR), were observed after their perihelion passages at heliocentric distances between 5.5 and 7.08 AU. The dust production rates in terms of Afrho was measured for these comets. Using the retrieved values, an average dust production rate was derived under different model assumptions. A tentative calculation of the total mass loss of the comet nucleus within a certain observation period was executed. We calculated the corresponding thickness of the depleted uppermost layer where high-volatile ices completely sublimated. The results obtained in our study strongly support the idea that the observed activity of Comet SW1 requires a permanent demolition of the upper surface layers.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2020

Sticky or not sticky? Measurements of the tensile strength of micro-granular organic materials

Knowledge of the mechanical properties of protoplanetary and cometary matter is of key importance to better understand the activity of comets and the early stages of planet formation. The tensile strength determines the required pressure to lift off grains, pebbles and agglomerates from the cometary surface and also describes how much strain a macroscopic body can withstand before material failure occurs. As organic materials are ubiquitous in space, they could have played an important role during the planet formation process. This work provides new data on the tensile strength of five different micro-granular organic materials, namely, humic acid, paraffin, brown coal, charcoal and graphite. These materials are investigated by the so-called Brazilian Disc Test and the resulting tensile strength values are normalised to a standard grain size and volume filling factor. We find that the tensile strength of these materials ranges over four orders of magnitude. Graphite and paraffin possess tensile strengths much higher than silica, whereas coals have very low tensile strength values. This work demonstrates that organic materials are not generally stickier than silicates, or water ice, as often believed.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2020

Activity of (6478) Gault during January 13 - March 28, 2019

We present the results of photometric observations of active asteroid (6478) Gault performed at heliocentric distances from 2.46 to 2.30 au and geocentric distances from 1.79 to 1.42 au between January 15 and March 28, 2019. Observations were carried out at the 2.5-m telescope of SAI MSU (CMO) on January 15, 2019 and at the 1.3-m and 0.61-m telescopes (SPb) on February 6 and March 28, 2019, respectively. The direct images of the asteroid were obtained with the broad-band B, V and R filters. Comet-like structures were detected at all observation dates. Colour maps were built and colour variations along the tail for the observation made on January 15, 2019 were analyzed. The $Afρ$ was calculated for the R filter, The evaluated value varies from 47 to 32 cm for the period from January to the end of March, 2019. The rotational period of the body is estimated from the light curve by different methods and is about 1.79 hr. Possible mechanisms of triggering Gault's activity are discussed.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2018

Impact-induced energy transfer and dissipation in granular clusters under microgravity conditions

The impact-induced energy transfer and dissipation in granular targets without any confining walls are studied by microgravity experiments. A solid projectile impacts into a granular target at low impact speed ($0.045 \leq v_p \leq 1.6$~m~s$^{-1}$) in a laboratory drop tower. Granular clusters consisting of soft or hard particles are used as targets. Porous dust agglomerates and glass beads are used for soft and hard particles, respectively. The expansion of the granular target cluster is recorded by a high-speed camera. Using the experimental data, we find that (i)~a simple energy scaling can explain the energy transfer in both, soft- and hard-particles granular targets, (ii)~the kinetic impact energy is isotropically transferred to the target from the impact point, and (iii)~the transferred kinetic energy is $2$~-~$7$\% of the projectile's initial kinetic energy. The dissipative-diffusion model of energy transfer can quantitatively explain these behaviors.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2018

The optical characteristics of the dust of sungrazing comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) observed at large heliocentric distances

We present an analysis of the photometric and spectroscopic data of the comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) observed at the heliocentric distances of 6.21÷4.81 AU. The photometric observations were made with the 60-cm Zeiss-600 telescope (ICAMER, peak Terskol, Russia) and the spectroscopic observations were performed using the SCORPIO-2 focal reducer mounted in the prime focus of the 6-m BTA telescope (SAO RAS, Russia). We analyse the B, V and R-band images to describe the dusty cometary coma and to investigate its brightness, colours and dust production rate. The spectra cover the wavelength range of 3600÷7070 Å. No emissions which are expected in this wavelength region were detected above the 3$σ$ level. The continuum shows a reddening effect with the normalized gradient of reflectivity along dispersion of (9.3$\pm$1.1)% per 1000 Å. A dust-loss rate was derived using the obtained values and under the different model assumptions. Our simulations clearly indicate that to retrieve dust production from the observational Af$ρ$ parameter is an ambiguous task. The result of such a procedure is strongly dependent on dynamical (e.g. effective density and cross-section) as well as optical (e.g. scattering coefficient and phase function) characteristics of dust grains. A variation of the mentioned parameters can lead to dramatic changes in the evaluation of mass production. We demonstrate that the dynamic and optical properties are interconnected via the microscopic properties of dust grains (effective size and porosity).

astro-ph.EP↗