Abstract To investigate if O+ ions originating from parent molecules of comet Halley can produce the ion fluxes observed at 28 × 106 km upstream of the comet on March 25, 1986, possible processes to produce high speed O atoms from a cometary nucleus are studied. It is found that O atoms dissociated from H2O and CO have average terminal speeds of ∼ 2.5 km s−1 and 3.4∼3.7km s−1 respectively. These O atoms cannot reach the ICE spacecraft at 28 × 106 km from Halley because of their low speeds. Oxygen atoms dissociated from CO2 in a two-step process can have speeds up to 9.1 km s−1 so that a fraction of the O atoms may be able to reach ICE on March 25. These O atoms can produce O+ ion flux of about 0.02 ion cm−2 s−1, at 28×106 km upstream of the comet, in the energy range of 80 to 160 Kev with the solar wind speed of 500 to 700 km s−1. The calculated O+ ion flux is 4 orders of magnitude smaller than the observed fluxes of ∼ 100 ions cm−2 s−1. Therefore it is very difficult to explain the observed energetic ion fluxes by ions of cometary origin.


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    Title :

    On the origin of the ions at 28 million kilometers upstream of comet Halley


    Contributors:
    Konno, I. (author)

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    1989-01-01


    Size :

    4 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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