Negative ions in the coma of Comet Halley

Abstract

The detection of negatively charged cometary ions in the inner coma of Comet Halley is reported. These ions are observed in three broad mass peaks at 7-19, 22-65, and 85-110 AMU, with densities reaching greater than about 1/cu cm, about 0.05/cu cm, and about 0.04/cu cm, respectively, at a distance of about 2300 km from the nucleus. The ion species thought to be present include O(-), OH(-), C(-), CH(-), CN(-) and heavier complex CHO molecular ions. As negative ions are easily destroyed by solar radiation at about 1 AU, an efficient production mechanism, so far unidentified, is required to account for the observed densities. The detection of negative ions in the coma near 1 AU implies that negative ions should also be present in similar neutral gas and dust environment farther away from the sun. If the negative-ion densities are large enough, they could play an important part in physical processes such as radiative transfer or charge exchange.