Dust-gas interrelations in comets: Observations and theory

The development of the expanding atmosphere from the evaporating cometary nucleus has traditionally focused on observing and modeling the separate development of two distinct components, gas and dust, which are coupled dynamically with one another at distances out to a few tens of cometary radii. In the last decade or so, however, direct evidence from observations and suggestions from theory suggest that the dusty-gas coma is a tightly coupled system where material is transferred between the solid and gaseous phase as an important integral part of the basic development of the coma. Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) was discovered far from the sun and is the largest and most productive comet, in the sense of release of gas and dust in modern times. This has permitted observations to be made over an unprecedented range of heliocentric distance. This paper presents a review of a range of important issues regarding interrelations between dust and gas in comets, a description of the gas and dust environment for Hale-Bopp, and a summary of the preliminary results from Hale-Bopp which are relevant to these issues. Particular topics include dusty-gas models, dust fading and fragmentation, the role of dust and gas jets, the day/night distribution of gas and dust, and extended sources of gas.