Magnetic field and the ionic tail of comet Halley

Abstract

The space missions to comet Halley have reported an increase of the magnetic field from (12-15) x 10 to the -5th gauss, characteristic of the interplanetary solar wind, to a peak field strength of (70-80) x 10 to the -5th gauss within the environment of comet Halley. The large magnetic field if characteristic of tail would lead to the growth of plasma instabilities excited in the cometary tail containing twisted magnetic fields, resulting in helical structures inclined at small angles to the tail boundary