Pick-up of cometary protons by the solar wind

Technical Report · Sun Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1987

OSTI ID:6482142

Neugebauer, M; Lazarus, A J; Altwegg, K; Balsiger, H; Goldstein, B E; Goldstein, R; Neubauer, F M; Rosenbauer, H; Schwenn, R; Shelley, E G

The High Energy Range Spectrometer (HERS) of the Ion Mass Spectrometer on the Giotto spacecraft measured the 3-dimensional distribution of picked-up cometary protons over a distance of approximately 8 million km upstream of the bow shock of Comet Halley. The protons were observed to be elastically scattered out of their original cycloidal trajectories such that they were nonuniformly distributed over a spherical shell in velocity space. The shell radius (relative to its expected radius) and thickness increased as the bow shock was approached. Downstream of the shock, the cometary protons could not be distinguished from the heated solar wind protons.

• Research Organization: Jet Propulsion Lab., Pasadena, CA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6482142
• Report Number(s): N-87-19342; NASA-CR-180212; NAS-1.26:180212
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640107* -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Planetary Phenomena
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BARYONS
COMETS
DATA
ELASTIC SCATTERING
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FERMIONS
HADRONS
HALLEY COMET
INFORMATION
IONIZATION
MASS SPECTROMETERS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
NUCLEONS
NUMERICAL DATA
PARTICLE KINEMATICS
PHOTOIONIZATION
PROTONS
SCATTERING
SHOCK WAVES
SOLAR ACTIVITY
SOLAR WIND
SPECTROMETERS