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Temperature dependence of specific heat capacity and its effect on asteroid thermal models
Author(s) -
GHOSH Amitabha,
McSWEEN Harry Y.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
meteoritics and planetary science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.09
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1945-5100
pISSN - 1086-9379
DOI - 10.1111/j.1945-5100.1999.tb01737.x
Subject(s) - asteroid , heat capacity , thermal , constant (computer programming) , thermodynamics , specific heat , function (biology) , materials science , astrobiology , physics , computer science , evolutionary biology , biology , programming language
— Asteroid thermal models have typically employed a constant value of specific heat capacity, although this parameter is a function of temperature. We examine whether incorporation of the temperature dependence of specific heat capacity is a necessary refinement and find that including it produces considerable differences in thermal history. Though the temperature effect is demonstrated in a representative calculation for a chondritic asteroid with 26 Al decay as a heat source, this result also has implications for asteroidal thermal models based on electromagnetic induction heating or heating by impact, as well as for thermal models of the terrestrial planets.