Spatial Asymmetries of Some Gas Emissions in the Head of Halley's Comet
Abstract
Long slit visible spectra of Halley comet were recorded on Oct. 18.98 - 19.23, Nov. 14.86 - 15.09 and Dec. 4.74 - 4.91, 1985, along the sunward direction. The radial profiles of the absolute intensity emitted by the most prominent visible gas bands (CN, C2, C3, NH2) have been obtained after careful reduction and elaboration of the spectra. These data have been interpreted using the vectorial model. On Dec. 4, it was possible to explain the measured radial profiles with the occurrence of two outbursts: the first one starting 1.5 days before the observations with an increase of the gas production rate of about an order of magnitude, the second one starting 0.6 days before, with an increasing of about 20% of the actual production rate.
- Publication:
-
ESLAB Symposium on the Exploration of Halley's Comet
- Pub Date:
- December 1986
- Bibcode:
- 1986ESASP.250c..75F
- Keywords:
-
- Asymmetry;
- Comet Heads;
- Emission Spectra;
- Gas Jets;
- Halley'S Comet;
- Spatial Distribution;
- Bursts;
- Space Observations (From Earth);
- Visible Spectrum;
- Astrophysics