The photometric study of the plasma tail of Comet Hyakutake (C/1996 B2)
The brightness distribution for the plasma tail of Comet Hyakutake is obtained. The photometric scans along the unusually long jet directed at the tail side are studied. The photometric scans along the main streams in plasma tail are compared with the brightness profiles calculated on the basis of t...
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| Published in: | Кинематика и физика небесных тел |
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| Date: | 2005 |
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| Language: | English |
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Головна астрономічна обсерваторія НАН України
2005
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| Online Access: | https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/handle/123456789/79707 |
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| Cite this: | The photometric study of the plasma tail of Comet Hyakutake (C/1996 B2) / Yu.V. Sizonenko // Кинематика и физика небесных тел. — 2005. — Т. 21, № 5-додаток. — С. 494-496. — Бібліогр.: 6 назв. — англ. |
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Digital Library of Periodicals of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine| _version_ | 1860111716597104640 |
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| author | Sizonenko, Yu.V. |
| author_facet | Sizonenko, Yu.V. |
| citation_txt | The photometric study of the plasma tail of Comet Hyakutake (C/1996 B2) / Yu.V. Sizonenko // Кинематика и физика небесных тел. — 2005. — Т. 21, № 5-додаток. — С. 494-496. — Бібліогр.: 6 назв. — англ. |
| collection | DSpace DC |
| container_title | Кинематика и физика небесных тел |
| description | The brightness distribution for the plasma tail of Comet Hyakutake is obtained. The photometric scans along the unusually long jet directed at the tail side are studied. The photometric scans along the main streams in plasma tail are compared with the brightness profiles calculated on the basis of the diffusion model of the plasma tail. The magnetic field induction and the lifetime of ions in the tail of Comet Hyakutake as well as the coefficients of diffusion are estimated.
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| first_indexed | 2025-12-07T17:34:57Z |
| format | Article |
| fulltext |
THE PHOTOMETRIC STUDY OF THE PLASMA TAIL
OF COMET HYAKUTAKE (C/1996 B2)
Yu. V. Sizonenko
Main Astronomical Observatory, NAS of Ukraine
27 Akademika Zabolotnoho Str., 03680 Kyiv, Ukraine
e-mail: sizon@mao.kiev.ua
The brightness distribution for the plasma tail of Comet Hyakutake is obtained. The photometric
scans along the unusually long jet directed at the tail side are studied. The photometric scans
along the main streams in plasma tail are compared with the brightness profiles calculated on
the basis of the diffusion model of the plasma tail. The magnetic field induction and the lifetime
of ions in the tail of Comet Hyakutake as well as the coefficients of diffusion are estimated.
OBSERVATION AND PHOTOMETRIC TREATMENT
The image of Comet Hyakutake was obtained on March 23.917, 1996 with the DShA-astrograph (400/2000) of
the Golosiiv Observatory, when the comet was near the Earth, only at 0.111 AU. The visible tail of the comet
extended to more than 100◦ on the sky. On the plate 30×30 cm the image of comet occupies a greater part
of the place. The image of the comet was obtained on the ORWO ZU-21 plate without filter. The surface
photometry of comet tail was performed at the MAO NASU with ATsMF-XY digitizer by V. L. Kostiuchenko
and V. G. Parusimov. The photometric treatment procedure let us to eliminate the regular photometric errors of
the telescope as well as the difference into the atmospheric extinction along the tail. We calibrated the plate with
standard stars from a photometric catalogue. The photometric treatment of the comet image was completed
with the drawing of the brightness distribution map.
Figure 1. The isophotes of the tail of Comet Hyakutake on March 23.917, 1996. The dashed lines show the directions
of photometric scans along the streams
Figure 1 shows the distribution of brightness of the plasma tail of Comet Hyakutake on March 23.917,
1996. The axis M on the brightness map is directed along the projection of the prolonged comet–Sun line and
the axis N directed to the side where the aberration angle increases. For our study we obtained photometric
scans along the directions which are marked in Fig. 1 by dashed lines. These directions are the axes of streams
of the plasma tail. The other photometric scans were obtained along the transversal directions.
c© Yu. V. Sizonenko, 2004
494
CALCULATION OF BRIGHTNESS PROFILES
The obtained scans were compared with the brightness profiles calculated with the well-known diffusion model
of plasma tail [3]. Another work [5] in this issue discusses the improvement of the model. In this work we
used the same method for estimation of the acceleration comet ions. Our earlier results [4] give the estimate of
acceleration as a = 52 cm s−2.
Figure 2. The photometric scans along the main streams of tail and the calculated profiles for the plasma tail of Comet
Hyakutake on March 23.917, 1996
It will be noted that we took the estimate of ion’s temperature from [6]: Ti = (2 ÷ 8) · 104 K. Figure 2
shows the photometric scans and calculated profiles of brightness distribution along the streams of plasma tail
on March 23.917, 1996. The chains of marks show the observed scans along the streams. The solid lines show
the calculated profiles. The line numbers correspond to the stream numbers in Fig. 1. The brightness profiles
along the streams in plasma tail are calculated with two model parameters: Γ and L‖. The best fit of the profiles
gives the values of these parameters for the each stream. Then, we found the best fit of transversal profiles of
each stream of the plasma tail. This fitting gave the second scale factor, L⊥.
Figure 3 shows the result of this fitting for the tangential scans of the main stream of plasma tail.
Figure 3. The tangential photometric scans of the stream 2 of tail and the calculated profiles for the Comet Hyakutake on
March 23.917, 1996: (1) tangential scan at a distance of 1.72 · 1010 cm from the nucleus, (2) at a distance of 2.13 · 1010 cm,
(3) at a distance of 2.72 · 1010 cm, (4) at a distance of 3.21 · 1010 cm, (5) at a distance of 3.79 · 1010 cm
495
RESULTS
We obtained the sets of model parameters for three streams of plasma tail from comparison of the photomet-
ric scans and calculated profiles. The parameters were chosen by the criterion of the minimum deviation of
calculated profiles from the photometric scans.
Table 1. Parameters of diffusion model for the tail of Comet Hyakutake
Stream Γ L‖, 1010 cm L⊥, 109 cm
1 4.26 0.793 6.13±1.48
2 3.27 0.935 10.19±2.22
3 4.17 0.515 4.69±0.94
Table 1 gives a set of model parameters. The parameter L⊥ is calculated as the mean value of the para-
meters for some tangential profiles of streams of the tail. We used these parameters for calculation of physical
characteristics of the plasma tail of Comet Hyakutake with the formulas from [1]. The lifetime τ of comet
ions, coefficients of longitudinal diffusion D‖, transversal diffusion D⊥, and induction of magnetic field B for
the plasma tail of Comet Hyakutake are in Table 2.
Table 2. Physical characteristics of the plasma tail of Comet Hyakutake
Stream τ , 104 s D‖, 1015 cm2 s−1 D⊥, 1015 cm2 s−1 Bmin, nT Bmax, nT
1 1.61 0.45 0.34 12.0 48.2
2 1.93 1.03 1.35 4.4 17.4
3 2.00 0.93 0.46 6.8 27.2
The analysis of the data of Table 2 shows that the coefficient of longitudinal diffusion D‖ for central (main)
stream of the plasma tail is somewhat greater than for other streams. At the same time the induction of
magnetic field for main stream is less than for other streams. This lets us suppose that the magnetic field is
weak in the central part of the plasma tail and that it is increasing to the border of plasma tail. This conclusion
was first made in [2].
[1] Churyumov K. I., Shabas N. L. The physical conditions in the plasma tail of Comet Halley 1986 during its
disconnection // Astron. Vestnik.–1998.–32, N 3.–P. 43–50.
[2] Dubinin E. M., Izrailevich P. L., Podgornuyi I. M. // Astron. Zh.–1982.–59, N 5.
[3] Nazarchuk G. K., Shulman L. M. The diffusion model of comet tail // Problemy Kosmicheskoy Fiziki.–1968.–6.–
P. 11–24.
[4] Sizonenko Yu. V. // Kinematics and Physics of Celestial Bodies.–1998.–14, N 4.–P. 308–314.
[5] Sizonenko Yu. V. The magnetic field of the plasma tail of Comet 1P/Halley // Kinematics and Physics of Celestial
Bodies. Suppl. Ser.–2005.–N 5.–P. 491. (this issue).
[6] Spinrad H., Brown M. E., Johns C. M. Kinematics of the ion tail of Comet P/Swift–Tuttle // Astron. J.–1994.–108,
N 4.–P. 1420–1462.
496
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| id | nasplib_isofts_kiev_ua-123456789-79707 |
| institution | Digital Library of Periodicals of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine |
| issn | 0233-7665 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-12-07T17:34:57Z |
| publishDate | 2005 |
| publisher | Головна астрономічна обсерваторія НАН України |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | Sizonenko, Yu.V. 2015-04-03T19:55:24Z 2015-04-03T19:55:24Z 2005 The photometric study of the plasma tail of Comet Hyakutake (C/1996 B2) / Yu.V. Sizonenko // Кинематика и физика небесных тел. — 2005. — Т. 21, № 5-додаток. — С. 494-496. — Бібліогр.: 6 назв. — англ. 0233-7665 https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/handle/123456789/79707 The brightness distribution for the plasma tail of Comet Hyakutake is obtained. The photometric scans along the unusually long jet directed at the tail side are studied. The photometric scans along the main streams in plasma tail are compared with the brightness profiles calculated on the basis of the diffusion model of the plasma tail. The magnetic field induction and the lifetime of ions in the tail of Comet Hyakutake as well as the coefficients of diffusion are estimated. en Головна астрономічна обсерваторія НАН України Кинематика и физика небесных тел MS5: Dynamics and Physics of Solar System Bodies The photometric study of the plasma tail of Comet Hyakutake (C/1996 B2) Article published earlier |
| spellingShingle | The photometric study of the plasma tail of Comet Hyakutake (C/1996 B2) Sizonenko, Yu.V. MS5: Dynamics and Physics of Solar System Bodies |
| title | The photometric study of the plasma tail of Comet Hyakutake (C/1996 B2) |
| title_full | The photometric study of the plasma tail of Comet Hyakutake (C/1996 B2) |
| title_fullStr | The photometric study of the plasma tail of Comet Hyakutake (C/1996 B2) |
| title_full_unstemmed | The photometric study of the plasma tail of Comet Hyakutake (C/1996 B2) |
| title_short | The photometric study of the plasma tail of Comet Hyakutake (C/1996 B2) |
| title_sort | photometric study of the plasma tail of comet hyakutake (c/1996 b2) |
| topic | MS5: Dynamics and Physics of Solar System Bodies |
| topic_facet | MS5: Dynamics and Physics of Solar System Bodies |
| url | https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/handle/123456789/79707 |
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