AbstractThe nucleus of an active comet, such as comet Halley near its perihelion, produces large quantities of gas and dust. The resulting cometary atmosphere, or coma, extends more than a million kilometers into space, where it interacts with the solar wind. An “induced” cometary magnetosphere is a consequence of this interaction. Cometary ion pick-up and mass loading of the solar wind starts to take place at very large cometocentric distances. Eventually this mass loading leads to the formation of a weak cometary bow shock. Even closer to the nucleus, collisional processes, such as ion-neutral chemistry, become important. Other features of the magnetosphere of an active comet include a magnetic barrier, a magnetotail, and a diamagnetic cavity near the nucleus. X-ray emission from comets is produced by the interaction of the solar wind with cometary neutrals and this topic is also discussed. A broad review of the cometary magnetosphere will be given in this paper.


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    Title :

    Cometary magnetospheres: a tutorial


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Advances in Space Research ; 33 , 11 ; 1968-1976


    Publication date :

    2003-07-01


    Size :

    9 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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