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Broadening of the Interplanetary Helium Cone Structure Due to Elastic Collisions of LISM Helium Atoms with Solar Wind Ions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
Abstract
Neutral interstellar particles penetrating into the heliosphere, besides being subject there to specific loss processes, suffer elastic collisions with KeV-solar wind ions. The momentum transfer to the neutrals connected with these collisions leads to a loss of angular momentum with respect to the sun and to a fractional compensation of the effective solar gravity. The dynamical particle trajectories hence are changed into non-Keplerians leading to density and temperature distributions differing from those calculated in the past. This is found from a solution of the Boltzmann equation that linearizes the effect of this additional force. It is shown here that the HeI-584A resonance glow of the heliospheric helium cone lead to substantially lower interstellar helium temperatures if re-interpreted on the basis of this revised theory. These temperatures now seem to be in accordance with the derived temperatures for interstellar hydrogen.
- Type
- Helium and Hydrogen Backscattering Results and the Very Local Interstellar Medium
- Information
- International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 81: Local Interstellar Medium , 1984 , pp. 32 - 36
- Copyright
- Copyright © NASA 1984
References
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