Comet Halley and the solar wind
A qualitative model is presented for the formation and phenomena of a cometary tail. A comet encounters outward moving solar magnetic field lines. Gas and dust from the comet expand outward for several million kilometers and encounter and are stripped into ions by the solar wind. The particles become entwined in the broken solar field lines and spiral away from the sun, beyond the comet, at velocities of 400-500 km/sec, forming a plasma tail. Interplanetary magnetic field perturbations which result were, e.g., detected by the ICE spacecraft 28 million km from Comet Halley. Interactions among the comet bow shock, the solar wind, the IMF lines, and the outward flowing cometary material produce turbulence such as that observed in the tail of Comet Giacobini-Zinner.
- Research Organization:
- Institut Kosmicheskikh Issledovanii, Moscow, USSR
- OSTI ID:
- 6466032
- Journal Information:
- Sky Telesc.; (United States), Vol. 73
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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