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Far‐ultraviolet observations of the neutral comae of comet Hale‐Bopp (C/1995 01) near perihelion
Author(s) -
Brittnacher M.,
Kang J.,
Parks G.,
Elsen R.,
Germany G.,
Spann J.,
Fox N.,
Puetter R. C.,
Yahil A.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2000gl012567
Subject(s) - physics , coma (optics) , comet , astrophysics , ultraviolet , wavelength , production rate , astronomy , oxygen , flux (metallurgy) , optics , chemistry , industrial engineering , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , engineering
The Ultraviolet Imager on the Polar spacecraft observed the neutral oxygen and carbon comae of Comet Hale‐Bopp (C/1995 01) at far‐ultraviolet wavelengths near perihelion on March 31 and April 2, 1997. The OI (1304) coma was circularly symmetric with a diameter of about 5 million km. The coma was smaller in the longer wavelength (1400–1600 Å and 1600–1800 Å) bands, which is probably due to fluorescence of neutral carbon at 1561 Å and 1657 Å. The production rate for O calculated from the observed OI (1304) flux was (9.8±2.5) × 10 30 . Using this value the estimated production rate for OH was (8.9±2.5) × 10 30 and for H 2 O was (1.0±0.3) × 10 31 .