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Charge Exchange-Induced X-Ray Emission from Comet C/1999 S4 (LINEAR)
C. M. Lisse,1*D. J. Christian,12K. Dennerl,3K. J. Meech,4R. Petre,5H. A. Weaver,6S. J. Wolk7
Using soft x-ray observations of the bright new comet C/1999 S4
(LINEAR) with the Chandra x-ray observatory, we have detectedx-ray
line emission created by charge exchange between highlyionized solar
wind minor ions and neutral gases in the comet'scoma. The emission
morphology was symmetrically crescent shapedand extended out to
300,000 kilometers from the nucleus. The emissionspectrum contains 6 lines at 320, 400, 490, 560, 600, and 670electron volts, attributable
to electron capture and radiativedeexcitation by the solar wind
species C+5, C+6, N+7,
O+7, and O+8. A contemporaneous 7-day soft
x-ray light curve obtained usingthe Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer
demonstrates a large increasein the comet's emission coincident with
a strong solar flare on14 and 15 July 2000.
1 University of Maryland, Department of
Astronomy, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
2 Computer
Sciences Corporation, Science Operations, 3700 San Martin Drive,
Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
3 Max-Planck-Institut
für Extraterrestrische Physik, Postfach 1603, 85740 Garching,
Germany
4 Institute for Astronomy, University of
Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.
5 Code 666, NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center,
Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
6 Johns Hopkins
University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 3400 North Charles
Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
7 Chandra X-Ray
Center, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street,
Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
lisse{at}astro.umd.edu
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