Possible Detection of Colliding Plasmoids in the Tail of Comet Kohoutek (1973f)

Abstract

Six JOCR photographs of Comet Kohoutek taken on January 19, 1974 (UT) show concentrations of plasma about ten degrees from the head of the comet which are very similar to the “barred spirals” reported by Bostick (IAU Symposium No. 6: Electromagnetic Phenomena in Cosmical Physics, B. Lehnert, (ed.) Cambridge Univ. Press, 1958) from laboratory observations of colliding plasmoids. The photographs were taken about one day after a solar magnetic sector boundary crossed the comet's head. Also, the comet's plasma tail splits near the head into two distinct segments. It appears that the two segments reconverge and form the plasma concentrations by collisions. This represents an increase in scale over Bostick's work of about 10¹⁴ Possible historical observations of similar phenomena are discussed.