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Interception of comet Hyakutake's ion tail at a distance of 500 million kilometres

Balsiger, H.; Geiss, J.; Schwadron, N. A. +6 more

Remote sensing observations and the direct sampling of material from a few comets have established the characteristic composition of cometary gas. This gas is ionized by solar ultraviolet radiation and the solar wind to form `pick-up' ions, ions in a low ionization state that retain the same compositional signatures as the original gas. The pick-u…

Identification of comet Hyakutake's extremely long ion tail from magnetic field signatures

Balogh, André; Jones, Geraint H.; Horbury, Timothy S.

Observations of the varying orientations of comet tails led to the suggestion of the existence of the solar wind-a continuous outflow of ionized material from the Sun. It is now well established that gas from comets is ionized by several processes and joins the solar wind, forming an ion (plasma) tail that points away from the Sun. The plasma envi…