Nucleus precession of periodic comet Comas Sola

The nuclear properties of the periodic comet Comas Sola are studied based on a precession model applied previously to the periodic comets Encke, Kopff, and Giacobini-Zinner. The results imply that, for a few revolutions about the sun, Comas Sola was precessing more rapidly than any comet studied to date. An explanation is offered for this behavior in terms of a perturbation in the comet's obliquity shortly after the 1952 passage through perihelion. The equatorial radius of the nucleus is close to 1 km and its rotation period is 1.5-2.3 days, according to the model results. The calculated shape of the nucleus is compared with those of other comets studied using this technique.