A Cheap Cometary Mission: Ground-Based Measurement of Plasma Velocities and Temperatures in Comet Swift-Tuttle

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Scientific paper

We present the first direct ground based observations of important cometary plasma properties. We measured plasma velocities and temperatures both sunward and tailward of the nucleus of comet P/Swift-Tuttle in November and December of 1992. The observations are a series of long-slit high resolution spectra of the H_2O(+) emission centered at 6199 Angstroms with a velocity resolution of about 7 km s(-1) (FWHM) and a spatial resolution of about 10(4) km at the comet. Emission is visible from just inside the predicted position of the cometopause on the sunward side of the nucleus out to 5 times 10(5) km on the tailward side. The shock heating and deceleration of the plasma on the sunward side is clearly observed as is the acceleration and heating into the tail. These observations show the effectiveness of ground based methods for the systematic study of cometary plasmas.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

A Cheap Cometary Mission: Ground-Based Measurement of Plasma Velocities and Temperatures in Comet Swift-Tuttle does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with A Cheap Cometary Mission: Ground-Based Measurement of Plasma Velocities and Temperatures in Comet Swift-Tuttle, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and A Cheap Cometary Mission: Ground-Based Measurement of Plasma Velocities and Temperatures in Comet Swift-Tuttle will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1847680

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.