IAU Colloquium 168
Cometary Nuclei in Space and Time

Nanjing, China
May 18-22, 1998

Electronically-submitted Abstracts of Participants


Meteor Showers and their relationship to Cometary nuclei
I.P.WILLIAMS, Astronomy Unit, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK

It is now generally accepted that some of the major meteor showers that are observed on Earth are caused when the Earth passes through a stream of small grains that have been ejected from specific cometary nuclei. What is observed depends on the location and distribution of these dust grains or meteoroids. These depend primarily on two factors, the meteoroid ejection process and the subsequent dynamical evolution of the meteoroids. Provided the two effects can be disentangled, then the former can give valuable evidence regarding processes ongoing in a cometary nucleus. The main aim of this review talk is to discuss our current understanding of all of these processes and, through this to deduce as much as is feasible about cometary nuclei.



Welcome to GoLive CyberStudio Return to Colloquium Homepage.
Return to Coll oquium Schedule.
Return to List of Abstracts.

Created 28 Apr 1998. yfp.