The Disconnection Event of Comet Lulin

Details The Disconnection Event of Comet Lulin The Disconnection Event of Comet Lulin

Mar 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011acasn..52..136s&link_type=abstract

Acta Astronomica Sinica, vol. 52, no. 2, p. 136-144

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

1

Comets: Individual, Methods: Data Analysis

Scientific paper

The disconnection event (DE) is the entire plasma tail or its part separates from the cometary head. It is one of the most spectacular phenomena of comets. The driving mechanism remained unresolved and there are many competitive theories to explain the onset of DE at present. However, the variable solar wind is suspected to play a major role. Comet Lulin showed a DE on 2009 February 4. The data around this day are analyzed and it is found that comet Lulin had already occurred a DE on 2009 February 3. By comparing the morphology of plasma tail of these two DEs, it is concluded that the DE occurred on 2009 February 3 is a new DE, different from that occurred on 2009 February 4. In this paper, we report the result of the analysis of DE on 2009 February 3. The calculated occurrence time of DE is, in UT decimal date, 2009 February 3.635±0.215. The radial velocity of the disconnection tail is about 68 km/s. Considering the orbit characters of comet Lulin and the solar wind conditions around comet Lulin, it is concluded that the DE occurred on 2009 February 3 was driven by magnetic reconnection between comet and a coronal mass ejection. The solar wind conditions around comet Lulin are inferred to the comet by corotation of STEREO-A data.

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