An inside look at Halley's comet

Details An inside look at Halley's comet An inside look at Halley's comet

May 1986

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1986s%26t....71..438b&link_type=abstract

Sky and Telescope (ISSN 0037-6604), vol. 71, May 1986, p. 438-443.

Computer Science

Flyby Missions, Halley'S Comet, Comet Nuclei, Giotto Mission, Hydrogen, Japanese Spacecraft, Plasma Waves, Solar Wind, Vega Project, Comets, Halley, Spacecraft Observations, Mission Description, Vega 1, Vega 2, Equipment, Comet Nuclei, Cameras, Imagery, Suisei, Comae, Dust, Giotto, Design, Experiments, Sakigake, Size, Shape, Ions, Composition, Neutral Particles, Gases, Pioneer Venus Orbiter, Pvo, Popular, International Ultraviolet Explorer, Iue Satellite

Scientific paper

The 1985-1986 emergence of Halley's comet, the first since the advent of the space age, was explored by a variety of spacecraft. The Vega 1, launched by the USSR together with the Eastern-block alliance, passed 5523 miles from the comet's nucleus at 7:20:06 Universal time. It indicated that the comet was about 300 miles closer to the sun than had been predicted. The Japanese spacecraft, Suisei, was created to map the distribution of neutral hydrogen atoms outside Halley's visible coma. Its pictures indicated that the comet's output of water varied between 25 and 60 tons per second. Five days after the Vega 2's passage through the comet, the Giotto (sponsored by the European Space Agency) probe appeared. Giotto's close approach took place 3.1 minutes after midnight UT on March 14th; the craft had passed 376 miles from its target. Giotto's data indicated that the nucleus was bigger than expected, and that the comet was composed primarily of water, CO2 and N2. The Vegas and Giotto found that as the solar wind approaches Halley, it slows gradually and the solar magnetic lines embedded in the wind begin to pile up. Pick-up ions, from the comet's halo of neutral hydrogen, were found in this solar wind. Sensors on the Vega spacecraft found a variety of plasma waves propagating inside the bow wave. In order to synthesize all the results, a conference on the exploration of Halley's comet will be held this October.

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