On the possibility of nitrous oxide (N2O) as a cometary parent molecule in Comet 1P/Halley

dc.contributor.author	Saxena, P. P
dc.date.accessioned	2006-03-13T09:41:21Z
dc.date.available	2006-03-13T09:41:21Z
dc.date.issued	2004-09
dc.identifier.citation	BASI, Vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 185-188	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/2248/731
dc.description.abstract	Nitrous oxide as a possible parent molecule in Comet 1P/Halley is discussed in light of in situ measurements and theoretical considerations. Hitherto undiscussed in cometary context, N2O could be a trace parent molecule with Q(N2O)/Q(H2O) ~ 2 x 10-4 in Comet 1P/Halley. Having a photo lifetime >105 s at 1 au heliocentric distance during solar minimum conditions and with a gas outflow speed of 0.85 km s-1 in the coma of Comet 1P/Halley, N2O could reach into the tail of comet where it dissociates into N2 and O. In this scenario, N2O acts as a camouflage for N2 and may help solve the puzzle of the presence of N+2 ions only in the tail of Comet 1P/Halley	en
dc.format.extent	68994 bytes
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.publisher	Astronomical Society of India	en
dc.subject	Comet 1P/Halley	en
dc.subject	cometary molecules: nitrous oxide	en
dc.subject	molecular nitrogen ion	en
dc.title	On the possibility of nitrous oxide (N2O) as a cometary parent molecule in Comet 1P/Halley	en
dc.type	Article	en