Kinematic models of cometary comae
As a first step towards understanding the kinematics of cometary comae, an analysis was undertaken of the 18-cm OH lines in comets. This work builds on past OH excitation and kinematic studies to meld them into a complete and self-consistent model for a cometary coma. The kinematics were modeled via the vectorial formalism and the powerful Monte Carlo technique was used in an effort to reproduce the high sensitivity, high spectral resolution 18-cm OH line profiles of Comets Halley, Giacobini-Zinner, Hartley-Good, Thiele, and Wilson which were obtained at the 43 meter telescope of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank, West Virginia. For the first time a zeroth order A-doublet quenching correction was applied to the 18-cm data and the long standing UV/radio gas production rate disparity was accounted for. Gas expansion velocities and coma anisotropies were derived from observations covering a wide range of heliocentric distances and gas production rates. The inferred ratio of dayside gas emission to nightside gas emission for all comets in this study, except P/Giacobini-Zinner, is approx. two. This value is consistent with that derived from in situ observations of the neutral gas in the coma of Comet Halley and is independent of both gas productivity and heliocentric distance. For P/Giacobini-Zinner, anomalously high gas outflow anisotropies were inferred for which there is no clear explanation.
- Research Organization:
- Massachusetts Univ., Amherst, MA (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6688242
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Ph.D. Thesis
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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