Price, Oliver;
Jones, Geraint H;
Battams, Karl;
Owens, Mathew;
(2023)
Fine–scale structure in cometary dust tails II: Further evidence for a solar wind influence on cometary dust dynamics from the analysis of striae in comet C/2011 L4 Pan-STARRS.
Icarus
, 389
, Article 115218. 10.1016/j.icarus.2022.115218.
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Abstract
Striated features, or striae, form in cometary dust tails due to an as-yet not fully constrained process or processes. Using STEREO-B SECCHI HI-1 instrument data, we display the evolution of striae in the tail of C/2011 L4 Pan-STARRS over a period of 8 days. This includes a period of morphological changes on 2013 March 14-15, similar to the reorganisation of striae previously observed in the tail of C/2006 P1 McNaught. This reorganisation is again attributed to Lorentz forces caused by the comet’s dust tail crossing the heliospheric current sheet. We further analyse the alignments of reorganised striae at both C/2006 P1 and C/2011 L4 and show these alignments have mixed compatibility with an additional solar wind influence. We also report the discovery of a bright neutral sodium tail at C/2011 L4.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Fine–scale structure in cometary dust tails II: Further evidence for a solar wind influence on cometary dust dynamics from the analysis of striae in comet C/2011 L4 Pan-STARRS |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.icarus.2022.115218 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2022.115218 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2022 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) |
| Keywords: | Comets, Dust, Plasma, Solar wind |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Space and Climate Physics UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10154899 |
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