Terrestrial cometary tail and lunar corona induced by small comets: Predictions for Galileo
Abstract
A search for small comets near 1 AU is an objective of the Galileo mission. If small comets are as numerous and behave as has been proposed, two near-Earth signatures of small comets should be observable by the UVS experiment on the Earth flybys of Galileo: ( 1 ) a comet-like tail of Earth created by small comets that come close to Earth, break up and vaporize, but just miss the atmosphere and proceed back into interplanetary space, and (2) a corona surrounding the Moon induced by lunar impact of small comets.
- Publication:
-
Geophysical Research Letters
- Pub Date:
- November 1990
- DOI:
- 10.1029/GL017i012p02257
- Bibcode:
- 1990GeoRL..17.2257D
- Keywords:
-
- Comet Tails;
- Coronas;
- Galileo Project;
- Interplanetary Space;
- Brightness;
- Comets;
- Extreme Ultraviolet Radiation;
- Halley'S Comet;
- Ultraviolet Spectrometers;
- Astrophysics;
- Planetology: Comets and Small Bodies: Interactions with solar wind plasma and fields;
- Planetology: Solid Surface Planets and Satellites: Atmospheric composition and chemistry;
- Planetology: Comets and Small Bodies: Atmospheric and ionospheric composition and chemistry;
- Planetology: Comets and Small Bodies: Orbital and rotational dynamics;
- Planetology: Comets and Small Bodies: Radiation and spectra