NASA NTRS · 19870016534
Dust activity of Comet Halley's nucleus
Abstract
Images obtained by the Halley multicolor camera using the clear filter with a pass band from 300 to 1000 nm were used to study dust activity in the comet nucleus. Comparisons with ground based observations confirm that dust production towards the Sun increases in activity relative to the southern background source while the Giotto spacecraft was approaching. This is in agreement with the assumption that the sunward activity becomes stronger when the source rotates towards the Sun. Estimated dust column density is 90 billion/sqm, with optical thickness less than or = 0.3. Surface reflectivity is less than 1%, indicating a very rough surface with large fractions of shadowed areas.
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Keller, H. U., Delamere, W. A., Huebner, W. F., Reitsema, H., Schmidt, H. U., Schmidt, W. K. H., Whipple, Fred L., Wilhelm, K.. 1986-12-01. Dust activity of Comet Halley's nucleus. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19870016534
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