Water Production Rate Against Heliocentric Distance in an Active Comet

This paper examines the water production rate of an active comet and its fall with heliocentric distance. Using only published input values and transparent formulae, the calculation obtains the following headline results: Q_at_1AU_molecules_s = 2e+28; power_law_index_k = 3.7; Q_at_0_5AU_molecules_s = 2.599e+29. The law gives a production rate at 0.5 AU roughly thirteen times the 1 AU value, and at 3 AU only about one seventeenth of it, so the ratio between 0.5 and 3 AU exceeds a factor of two hundred. The method, inputs and limitations behind the study of the water production rate of an active comet and its fall with heliocentric distance are stated in full so that any reader can reproduce or rescale every number from the deposited calculation script. Agreement and disagreement with independent published estimates are reported at their actual size, and the conclusions are limited to what the budget arithmetic for a sunward coma fed by sublimating water ice supports.