ISSN:
1573-0794
Keywords:
Comets
;
general-comets
;
individual (Hale–Bopp 1995 O1
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Geosciences
,
Physics
Notes:
Abstract We report the detection of soft X-rays from comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) by the Low Energy Concentrator Spectrometer (LECS) on-board the X-ray satellite, BeppoSAX. The observations took place on 1996 September 10–11 approximately 1 day after a large dust outburst (Schulz et al., 1997–1999). After correcting for the comets motion, a 7σ enhancement was found centered (2.1 ± 1.3) x 105 km from the position of the nucleus, in the general solar direction. The total X-ray luminosity in the 0.1–2.0 keV energy band is 5 x 1016 erg s−1 which is at least a factor of ∼ 3 greater than measured by the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE)4 days later and suggests that the bulk of the emission measured by the LECS is related to the dust outburst. The extracted LECS spectrum is well fit by a thermal bremsstrahlung-like distribution of temperature of 0.29 ± 0.06 keV - consistent with that observed in other comets. We find no evidence for fluorescent carbon or oxygen emission and place 95% confidence limits of 1.0 x 1015 and 7.8 x 1015 erg s−1 to narrow line emission at 0.28 and 0.53 keV, respectively. We calculate that if such lines are present, they constitute at most 18% of the 0.1–2.0 keV continuum luminosity.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1006253028962
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