Publication Date:
1997-03-28
Description:
Narrowband photometric observations of comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) between 25 July 1995 and 15 February 1997 indicated gas and dust production rates of 20 and 100 times greater, respectively, than observed at the same heliocentric distances for comet P/Halley in 1985. Hale-Bopp produced dust at a rate greater than has been observed for any other comet at any distance since at least 1977. On the basis of the observed production rate of the hydroxyl molecule, the calculated minimum effective diameter of Hale-Bopp's nucleus is 17 kilometers, but the actual diameter of the nucleus is likely to be at least two to three times larger. The chemical composition of Hale-Bopp is consistent with that of other long-period comets originating from the Oort Cloud.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Schleicher, D G -- Lederer, S M -- Millis, R L -- Farnham, T L -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1997 Mar 28;275(5308):1913-5.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Lowell Observatory, 1400 West Mars Hill Road, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, USA. dschleicher@lowell.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9072963" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Carbon/analysis
;
Cosmic Dust
;
Cyanides/analysis
;
Gases
;
Hydroxyl Radical/analysis
;
*Meteoroids
;
Water/analysis
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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