Publication Date:
2019-06-28
Description:
During the early phase of the Giotto encounter with comet Halley, at distances from the nucleus greater than 350,000 km, the neutral mass spectrometer was operated in a mode allowing the measurement of low energy ions. Data reveal two important features of the outer coma: the presence of a sharp discontinuity in the plasma flow at 550,000 km from the nucleus which results in a significant decrease of the plasma flow accompanied by an increase in temperature; and the detection of newly born ions identified as O(+) and CO(+), at distances from the comet greater than 800,000 km.
Keywords:
ASTROPHYSICS
Type:
ESA Proceedings of the 20th ESLAB Symposium on the Exploration of Halley's Comet. Volume 1: Plasma and Gas; p 175-178
Format:
text