On the temperature and gas composition in the region of comet formation

The gas composition and temperature in the region of Comet Halley's formation are estimated on the basis of Giotto and Vega spacecraft results, in conjunction with an experimental study of gas-mixture trapping in amorphous water ice. A CO/CH4 ratio of the order of 100, and temperature about 48 K, are inferred for the case of Halley formation in the solar nebula through water vapor condensation in the presence of gas. This formation temperature, which implies that the ice was in amorphous form, is noted to be close to the temperatures observed in circumstellar dust shells by IRAS; it also lends support to the suggestion that short-period comets were formed outside the planet-formation region.