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Cometary dust trails I. Survey

Sykes, Mark V.; Walker, Russell G.

Cometary dust trails were first observed by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite and consist of large refractory particles ejected from short-period comets at low velocities. Consequently, they tend to be found near the orbital paths of their parent bodies, their long and narrow appearance reminescent of airplane contrails. An examination of the en…

0.7- to 23-µm photometric observations of P/Halley 1986 III and six recent bright comets

Gehrz, R. D.; Ney, E. P.

We report 0.7- to 23-µm observations of P/Halley 1986 III and six other recent bright comets. P/Halley was measured on 47 occasions between 1985 December 12 UT and 1986 May 6 UT, several times within hours of the perihelion passage on 1986 February 9 UT. Our data show that the strength of the 10-µm silicate emission feature and the tem…

The origin of complex organic ions in the coma of Comet Halley

Reme, H.; Korth, A.; Lin, R. P. +3 more

Heavy ion mass spectra were obtained in the inner coma of Comet Halley by the Giotto-PICCA instrument. Outside the cometary ionopause, where ≳2000 K ion temperatures limited the effective mass resolution to 3 amu, the spectra exhibit a series of distinct mass groups that are separated by a constant ≈ 15 amu and extend to at least 120 amu. We show …