Planetary Science Seminar winter-2020

Investigation of the Fragments of Split Comet 73P: In this talk, I will discuss cometary fragmentation in general as well as a case study of split comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3. 73P has been observed to fragment on several occasions, however the cause of its fragmentation was poorly understood. We analyzed unpublished archival Hubble Space Telescope data in order to understand its fragmentation mechanism. From this work, we rule out rotational instability as potential breakup mechanism for 73P and provide a deeper analysis of its fragmentation evolution. The Effect of Moisture on Cloud Formation in Terrestrial Planetary Atmospheres: We examine a one-dimensional radiative convective equilibrium (1D-RCE) model, with water vapor and cloud feedbacks. The moisture parameters of the 1D-RCE are modified to enable variation of the saturation vapor pressure. We begin with an Earth-like aquaplanet with an atmosphere made of the present-day mix of dry components and share some initial results.