Particulate Mass Loss from Comet Hale-Bopp
Abstract
Large particles may be present in comets in numbers sufficient to dominate the total mass of the coma. These large particles are not readily sensed by conventional (optical - infrared) techniques but are prominent at submillimeter wavelengths. Images taken using a new camera sensitive to submillimeter wavelengths reveal that comet Hale-Bopp was a prodigious source of particulate matter, releasing dust at 2000 metric tons per second when near perihelion and contributing 3x10^13 kg to the interplanetary dust complex. The dust production rate exceeded that of gas (mostly water) by a factor greater than 5.
- Publication:
-
The Astronomical Journal
- Pub Date:
- February 1999
- DOI:
- 10.1086/300743
- Bibcode:
- 1999AJ....117.1056J
- Keywords:
-
- COMETS: GENERAL;
- COMETS: INDIVIDUAL: NAME: HALE-BOPP 1995 O1;
- RADIO CONTINUUM