Small Current Sheets in the Solar Wind as the Cause of X-Ray Emission in Comets

Details Small Current Sheets in the Solar Wind as the Cause of X-Ray Emission in Comets Small Current Sheets in the Solar Wind as the Cause of X-Ray Emission in Comets

Dec 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996aas...189.2505b&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, 189th AAS Meeting, late abstracts, #25.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical, Vol. 29, p. 728

Physics

Space Physics

1

Scientific paper

The discovery of 0.09 to 2.0 keV x-ray and EUV emission in comets by Lisse et al. (1996, Science, 274, 205) could be explained by mini-flares in the cometary atmosphere produced by current sheets in the solar wind. The current sheets are common and, indeed, Lepping and Behannon (1986, J. Geophys. Res., 91, 8725) have noted "...that the solar wind is interlaced throughout with current sheets...". The capture of the solar-wind field lines by the comet squeezes the current sheet, produces fast magnetic reconnection, and heating by magnetic field annihilation. The case of the full heliospheric current sheet encountering a comet and producing the general scenario just described plus disconnection events has been simulated by Yi et al. (1996, J. Geophys. Res.-Space Physics, November). Estimates of the energy available and the densities needed to produce the x-ray emission show that the model is plausible and can be readily tested. We predict that the emission should occur in the magnetic pile-up region of the comet (but probably sunward of the density maximum), the emission should be symmetrical around the direction of the solar-wind velocity vector aberrated by the comet's motion, and disconnection events(DEs) should be bright in x rays.

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