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Acceleration of cometary plasma tails

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Abstract

Cometary plasma tails are accelerated by the solar wind to ≈ half its velocity, corresponding to some 102 times the solar-wind momentum density. We corroborate Alfvén's (1957) ‘wind-sock’ mechanism according to which the momentum transfer is brought about by magnetic rigidity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Astrophysik der Universität, Bonn, Germany

    Wolfgang Kundt

  2. Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, India

    V. Krishan

Authors
  1. Wolfgang Kundt
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  2. V. Krishan
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Kundt, W., Krishan, V. Acceleration of cometary plasma tails. Astrophys Space Sci 143, 387–391 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00637150

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