HR: 0800h
AN: SH51D-0292    [Abstracts]
TI: Comet C/2002 V1 (NEAT): Behavior of a Cometary Dust Tail at 0.1 AU From the Sun
AU: * Jones, G H
EM: geraint.h.jones@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, MS 169-506, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AU: Morrill, J S
EM: jeff.morrill@nrl.navy.mil
AF: Naval Research Laboratory, 4555 Overlook Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20375 United States
AU: Lawrence, G R
EM: gareth.lawrence@oma.be
AF: Royal Observatory of Belgium, Ringlaan 3, Brussel, 1180 Belgium
AU: Lisse, C M
EM: lisse@astro.umd.edu
AF: University of Maryland, Dept. of Astronomy, College Park, MD 20742 United States
AU: Farnham, T L
EM: farnham@astro.umd.edu
AF: University of Maryland, Dept. of Astronomy, College Park, MD 20742 United States
AU: Hammer, D
EM: hammerd@pha.jhu.edu
AF: Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218 United States
AB: Comet C/2002 V1 (NEAT) was observed by the LASCO coronagraph aboard the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory spacecraft during February 16-20, 2003. This period spanned the comet's perihelion passage at 0.1 AU from the Sun. The observing geometry was excellent, with the comet's orbital plane almost perpendicular to the line of sight. Images obtained using the instrument's five optical-near IR broadband filters reveal an ion tail and a highly structured dust tail. The comet's extremely high gas and dust production rates were similar to those of C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp), but peaked in a much more extreme solar wind environment. Two large coronal mass ejections erupted in the comet's general direction during the observations, the largest of which affected not only the ion tail, but also the striated dust tail. Significant changes were observed in the dust tail's structure that we interpret as evidence of an interaction between the CME and electrically-charged cometary dust. We shall present our observations of the dust component of the comet, and our interpretations of them, supported by the results of simulations.
DE: 6015 Dust
DE: 6025 Interactions with solar wind plasma and fields
DE: 6210 Comets
DE: 2129 Interplanetary dust
DE: 2134 Interplanetary magnetic fields
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting