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Encounter of the Ulysses Spacecraft with the Ion Tail of Comet McNaughtComet McNaught was the brightest comet observed from Earth in the last 40 years. For a period of five days in early 2007 February, four instruments on the Ulysses spacecraft directly measured cometary ions and key properties of the interaction of the comet's ion tail with the high-speed solar wind from the polar regions of the Sun. Because of the record-breaking duration of the encounter, the data are unusually comprehensive. O3(+) ions were detected for the first time in a comet tail, coexisting with singly charged molecular ions with masses in the range 28-35 amu. The presence of magnetic turbulence and of ions with energies up to approximately 200 keV indicate that at a distance of approximately 1.6 AU from the comet nucleus, the ion tail McNaught had not yet reached equilibrium with the surrounding solar wind.
Document ID
20080047001
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Neugebauer, M.
(Arizona Univ. Tucson, AZ, United States)
Gloeckler, G.
(Michigan Univ. Ann Arbor, MI, United States)
Gosling, J. T.
(Colorado Univ. Boulder, CO, United States)
Rees, A.
(Imperial Coll. of London London, United Kingdom)
Skoug, R.
(Los Alamos National Lab. NM, United States)
Goldstein, B. E.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Armstrong, T. P.
(Fundamental Technologies, LLC Lawrence, KS, United States)
Combi, M. R.
(Michigan Univ. Ann Arbor, MI, United States)
Makinen, T.
(Finnish Meteorological Inst. Finland)
McComas, D. J.
(Southwest Research Inst. San Antonio, TX, United States)
VonSteiger, R.
(International Space Science Inst. Bern, Switzerland)
Zurbuchen, T. H.
(Michigan Univ. Ann Arbor, MI, United States)
Smith, E. J.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Geiss, J.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Lanzerotti, L. J.
(New Jersey Inst. of Tech. Newark, NJ, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
October 1, 2007
Publication Information
Publication: The Astrophysical Journal
Volume: 667
Subject Category
Astronomy
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
plasmas
comets
solar winds

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