In the link from Dodeca they state water vapor is being shed at 300KG/s
Once again they are using indirect measurement of water vapor, correct? How do they reconcile this with the comparison of relative abundances shown in the graph of the previous particle. How do you account for disassociation of the CO, CO2, NH4,H2S, the incoming solar wind, and reactions with current materials in the coma?
This is the first time I saw the number of 300KG/s, or the previous number mentioned 300g/s. A 1000 fold increase. The abundances shown in the graph do not appear to show relation between jets and H2O content. Rather the changes in water shed, show a relation to solar wind concentrations. Rosetta reached 67P at 673M km,perihelion is 186M km. Just now the comet should be encountering the largest density of solar wind, right?
and next: They list dust shed at 1000kg/s, at this previous study :
http://arxiv.org/abs/0709.0344 the mass loss was shown to be at most 250kg/s at perihelion. This number is greater than the 1000kg/s and 300kg/s. So of the material being "spewed" from the comet about 15% is being lost as mass, or the previous study was in error. So the idea of evaporation into space would come into question. The spewing material contributes to the atmosphere, reaction with the coma and the IPM generates the mass-loss and I don't know what correlation could be shown there between mass loss and surface material ejection.