Production of sulphur dimers (S2) in Comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake)

Abstract

The reaction mechanism involving the association of two sulphur atoms through ethylene (C2H4), the latter acting as a catalyst to produce cometary sulphur dimers (S2) (Saxena & Misra, 1995), has been employed to compute their production rate in Comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake). The computed production rate ~ 4.9 x 10 to the power 24 molecules 1/s at UT 24.5 March 1996 agrees well with the reported production rates on March 27, 1996, viz., 6.5 x 10 to the power 24 molecules 1/s or 1 x 10 to the power 25 molecules 1/s based on observations for the two reported lifetimes of S2 molecules (Laffont et al., 1998). The location of S2 molecules is found to be very near to the cometary nucleus (nucleo-centric distance ~ 1000 km).