ulysses spc may07

Slide1: 

For five days in early February 2007, when Ulysses was at its highest southern latitude, the SWOOPS, SWICS, MAG & HISCALE instruments measured cometary ions and key properties of the interaction of the ion tail of Comet McNaught (C/2006 P1) with the high-speed polar solar wind Record-breaking duration of the encounter  data are unusually comprehensive O3+ ions were detected for the first time at a comet, coexisting with singly charged molecular ions with mass in the range 28-35 amu The presence of magnetic turbulence and of ions with energies up to ~200 keV indicate that at a distance of ~1.6 AU from the comet nucleus, the ion tail of comet McNaught had not yet reached equilibrium with the surrounding solar wind Comet McNaught (C/2006 P1)

Slide2: 

The high-speed solar wind at Ulysses underwent slowing, depletion and heating as a result of charge exchange with neutral atoms and molecules from the comet, and pickup by the solar wind of the newly-born cometary ions.