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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Index Terms

  • Planetology: Comets and Small Bodies: Atmospheric and ionospheric composition and chemistry
  • Planetology: Comets and Small Bodies: Interactions with solar wind plasma and fields
  • Planetology: Comets and Small Bodies: Plasma and MHD instabilities

Abstract

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 13, NO. 7, PP. 613-616, 1986
doi:10.1029/GL013i007p00613

Detection of a new “chemical” boundary at comet Halley

K. I. Gringauz

Space Research Institute, USSR Academy of Sciences, ul. Profsoyuznaya 88/34, Moscow 117810, USSR

T. I. Gombosi

Central Research Institute for Physics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, P. O. Box 49, Budapest, Hungary, 1525

M. Tátrallyay

Central Research Institute for Physics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, P. O. Box 49, Budapest, Hungary, 1525

M. I. Verigin

Space Research Institute, USSR Academy of Sciences, ul. Profsoyuznaya 88/34, Moscow 117810, USSR

A. P. Remizov

Space Research Institute, USSR Academy of Sciences, ul. Profsoyuznaya 88/34, Moscow 117810, USSR

A. K. Richter

Max‐Planck‐Institut für Aeronomie, P. O. Box 20, D‐3411, Katlenburg‐Lindau, F.R. Germany

I. Apáthy

Central Research Institute for Physics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, P. O. Box 49, Budapest, Hungary, 1525

I. Szemerey

Central Research Institute for Physics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, P. O. Box 49, Budapest, Hungary, 1525

A. V. Dyachkov

Space Research Institute, USSR Academy of Sciences, ul. Profsoyuznaya 88/34, Moscow 117810, USSR

O. V. Balakina

Space Research Institute, USSR Academy of Sciences, ul. Profsoyuznaya 88/34, Moscow 117810, USSR

A. F. Nagy

Space Physics Research Laboratory, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109, USA

Plasma observations near comet Halley indicate that around 1.6×105km from the nucleus a newly discovered sharp boundary (cometopause) separates the solar wind controlled external and the heavy cometary ion dominated internal regions. Such a discontinuity was previously not predicted by theoretical models. Inside the cometopause (in the cometary plasma region) the protons and heavy ions move with different speeds: the heavy ion velocity is less than a few km/s throughout this region, while the protons decelerate from several tens of km/s (observed near the cometopause) to a few km/s (near 1.5×104km).

Received 19 May 1986; accepted 22 May 1986; .

Citation: Gringauz, K. I., et al. (1986), Detection of a new “chemical” boundary at comet Halley, Geophys. Res. Lett., 13(7), 613–616, doi:10.1029/GL013i007p00613.

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