46th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2015) 1781.pdf MODELING THE NEAR-SUN OBJECT, 3200 PHAETHON. Daniel C. Boice1,2 and J. Benkhoff3, 1Scientific Studies and Consulting, 9410 Harmon Dr., San Antonio, TX 78209 USA (
[email protected]), 2Trinity Univer- sity, Dept. of Physics, 1 Trinity Place, San Antonio, TX 78212 USA (
[email protected]), 3ESA-ESTEC/RSSD, Noordwijk, The Netherlands (
[email protected]). Introduction: Physico-chemical modeling is cen- Belt Comets”) necessitates a revision of how we un- tral to understand the important physical processes in derstand and classify these small asteroid-comet transi- small solar system bodies. We have developed a com- tion objects [9]. puter simulation, SUSEI, that includes the physico- Results: The time-dependent thermal results ob- chemical processes relevant to comets within a global tained in our calculations show the temperature evolu- modeling framework. Our goals are to gain valuable tion along Phaethon’s orbit at the sub-solar point as it insights into the intrinsic properties of cometary nuclei undergoes diurnal rotation (period of 3.604 hrs). It is so we can better understand observations and in situ noted that the subsolar temperature is consistent with measurements. SUISEI includes a 3-D model of gas the standard thermal model (STM [10]) and that diur- and heat transport in porous sub-surface layers in the nal variations are extreme at perihelion, resulting in interior of the nucleus. We have successfully used this temperature changes in excess of 700K in 1.8 hours, model in previous studies of comets at normal helio- and are consistent with the near-Earth asteroid thermal centric distances [1,2].