The Sodium Tails of Near-Sun Comets

Details The Sodium Tails of Near-Sun Comets The Sodium Tails of Near-Sun Comets

Oct 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011epsc.conf.1488j&link_type=abstract

EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2011, held 2-7 October 2011 in Nantes, France. http://meetings.copernicus.org/epsc-dps2011, p.1488

Computer Science

Scientific paper

We present results of our survey of the sodium tails of several comets observed by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory spacecraft, SOHO, using its LASCO coronagraph. We report on the morphology and brightness of these comets' sodium tails, using photometric analysis to estimate their relative sodium production rates. In addition, we attempt to simulate the observed tails using a Monte Carlo model. Simulation of the tail's morphology and appearance is not straightforward; the anti-sunward acceleration of sodium atoms is a strong function of the atoms' radial velocity, due to the dependence of the acceleration on the strength of the Doppler-shifted Fraunhofer sodium absorption lines in the solar spectrum in the atoms' frame of reference. We discuss the implications our results for our understanding of near-Sun comets' composition and origins.

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