Comet Tago-Sato-Kosaka 1969 IX: Tail structure 25 December 1969 to 12 January 1970

Abstract

On photographs taken between 25 December 1969 and 12 January 1970 with the Michigan Curtis Schmidt on Cerro Tololo and the Hamburg Schmidt at the Boyden Observatory, Comet 1969 IX is seen projected on planes nearly perpendicular to its orbit. During this period the Type I tail was free of major structural disturbances, and the faintness of the Type II tail facilitated study of the Type I tail near the lead. Characteristics of the main Type I tail are described in Part II. A classification of the tail forms according as the tail had the form of a fan of rays or a wedge, the orientation of the tail axis, and the angular width of the tail are discussed in Section IIA. In Section IIB the structure of the tail from 26 to 31 December, a period within which a disconnection of the tail took place, is viewed as the possible result of the passage across the comet of an interplanetary magnetic sector boundary, as proposed by Niedner and Brandt (1977, Bull. Amer. Astron. Soc. 4). In Sections IIC and IID waves in rays and the onset of turbulence are considered. Section IIIA is devoted to unusually long and bright off-axis rays; data on longitudinal forms, closing rate to the axis, and photometry of a ray are presented. In Section IIIB the structure of a “plume” of seven nearly parallel rays is related to the configuration of magnetic field lines predicted by Schmidt and Wegmann (1976, IPP Report 6/147). The orientations of the plume rays are consistent with those of the calculated field lines; the inferred rate of generation of the rays is about 1/hr.