期刊
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
卷 668, 期 1, 页码 L79-L82出版社
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1086/522587
关键词
comets : individual (2P/Encke); Sun : coronal mass ejections (CMEs)
This a discovery report of the first direct imaging of the interaction a comet with a coronal mass ejection ( CME) in the inner heliosphere with high temporal and spatial resolution. The observations were obtained by the Sun-Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation ( SECCHI) Heliospheric Imager-1 ( HI-1) aboard the STEREO mission. They reveal the extent of the plasma tail of comet 2P/Encke to unprecedented lengths and allow us to examine the mechanism behind a spectacular tail disconnection event. Our preliminary analysis suggests that the disconnection is driven by magnetic reconnection between the magnetic field entrained in the CME and the interplanetary field draped around the comet and not by pressure effects. Further analysis is required before we can conclude whether the reconnection occurs on the day side or on the tail side of the comet. However, the observations offer strong support to the idea that large-scale tail disconnections are magnetic in origin. The online movie reveals a wealth of interactions between solar wind structures and the plasma tail beyond the collision with the CME. Future analyses of this data set should provide critical insights on the structure of the inner heliosphere.
作者
我是这篇论文的作者
点击您的名字以认领此论文并将其添加到您的个人资料中。
推荐
暂无数据