Abstract
In July last year and in December 1984, barium clouds were injected into the solar wind from the AMPTE satellite. The clouds resembled those of natural comets in that a head and tail were clearly visible. Tail rays formed with speeds of a few tens of kilometres per second, and other structures separated at even higher speeds. The comet head, instead of moving slowly downstream, performed a lateral excursion of several hundred kilometres. In the first of a series of six articles, the properties of the ‘artificial comet’ are described.
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Valenzuela, A., Haerendel, G., Föppl, H. et al. The AMPTE artificial comet experiments. Nature 320, 700–703 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1038/320700a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/320700a0
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