Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T03:20:26.306Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Explosion of sungrazing comets in the solar atmosphere and solar flares

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2008

S. Ibadov
Affiliation:
Institute of Astrophysics, Dushanbe, Tajikistan email: [email protected]
F. S. Ibodov
Affiliation:
Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia email: [email protected], [email protected]
S. S. Grigorian
Affiliation:
Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia email: [email protected], [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Explosive evolution of nuclei of sungrazing comets near the solar surface, which occurs at conditions of intense interaction between the solar atmosphere and falling high-velocity comet nuclei as well as the relation of the phenomenon to the character of solar activity are analytically considered. It is found that, due to aerodynamic fragmentation of the falling body in the solar chromosphere and transversal expansion of the fragmented mass under the action of pressure gradient on the frontal surface, thermalization of the kinetic energy of the body occurs by sharp stopping of the disklike hypervelocity fragmented mass near the solar surface within a relatively very thin subphotospheric layer and has, therefore, an essentially impulsive and strongly explosive character. The specific energy release in the explosion region, erg/g, considerably exceeds the evaporation/sublimation heat of the body so that the process is accompanied by production of a high-temperature plasma. The energetics of such an explosive process corresponds to that of very large solar flares for falling bodies having masses equal to the mass of the nucleus of Comet Halley. Spectral observations of sungrazing comets by SOHO-like telescopes in a wide spectral range, including X rays, with a high time resolution, of the order of 0.1–10 s, are important for revealing solar activity in the form of an impact-generated photospheric flare.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2009

References

Bailey, M. E., Chambers, J. E., & Hahn, G. 1992, A&A, 257, 315Google Scholar
Beust, H., Lagrange, A.-M., Plazy, F., & Mouillet, D. 1996, A&A, 310, 181Google Scholar
COSPAR Inform. Bull. 1998, 142, 21Google Scholar
Fortov, V. E., Gnedin, Yu. N., Ivanov, M. F., Ivlev, A. V., & Klumov, B. A. 1996, Usp. Fiz. Nauk, 166, 391 [Engl. Transl.: Phys.-Usp., 39, 363]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grigoryan, S. S., Ibodov, F. S., & Ibadov, S. 1997, Dokl. Akad. Nauk, 354, 187 [Engl. Transl.: Phys.-Dokl., 42, 262]Google Scholar
Grigoryan, S. S., Ibadov, S., & Ibodov, F. S. 2000, Dokl. Akad. Nauk, 374, 40 [Engl. Transl.: Phys.-Dokl., 45, 463]Google Scholar
Ibadov, S., Ibodov, F. S., & Grigoryan, S. S. 2007, in: Star-Disk Interaction in Young Stars, Proc. IAU Symp. No. 243, Grenoble, France, p. VI.4 // www.iaus243.orgGoogle Scholar
Ivanov-Kholodnyi, G. S. & Nikol'skii, G. M. 1969, The Sun and Ionosphere (Moscow, Nauka)Google Scholar
MacQueen, R. M. & St.Cyr, O. C. 1991, Icarus, 91, 96CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsden, B. G. 1989, AJ, 98, 2306CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weissman, P. R. 1983, Icarus, 55, 448Google Scholar