The Formation Age of Comets: Predicted Physical and Chemical Trends

Dust grains in Herbig Ae/Be stars are continuously replenished by infalling comets. The IR spectra of these cometary grains appear to evolve temporally from initially amorphous astronomical silicates in young protostars to crystalline olivine in much older sources. Crystalline olivine can only be produced from amorphous silicates on a time scale of months-to-years via thermal annealing at temperatures near 1000 K. Since such sustained high temperatures only occur near the central star, dust annealed at 1000 K in inner nebular regions must be continuously transported beyond the nebular snowline to be incorporated into the next generation of cometesimals. The average formation age of a comet can therefore be measured as a ratio of the annealed crystalline olivine dust component to the total dust content of the comet. Comets formed from nearly pristine interstellar materials early in the protostellar nebula stage will contain very little crystalline dust whereas comets formed towards the end of the accretion period will incorporate a much higher percentage of annealed silicate. It is unlikely that only dust grains circulate from the inner to the outer nebula; the gas associated with such dust should also find its way beyond the snowline. Since this gas and dust will have equilibrated in the higher pressure-temperature regime of the inner nebula, it will contain a much higher proportion of hydrocarbons and ammonia than more pristine interstellar ices. Therefore, in addition to a higher fraction of crystalline dust, later forming comets should also contain higher ratios of hydrocarbons to CO and ammonia to N2 than do those formed early in the history of the nebula.