An analysis of the infrared continuum of comets. II. Comet Kohoutek

Abstract

An analysis of the infrared observations of comet Kohoutek has been carried out on the basis of silicate grain models. The 'observed' grain temperature has been obtained as a function of the heliocentric distance, and it is compared with the expected distribution. In the visible region, one requires for the refractive index, (m = n-ik), n of about 1.6 and k less than 0.05. The total number of grains varies essentially as the inverse square of radial distance; the size of the particles in the antitail of the comet Kohoutek is greater than 5 microns. The ratio of infrared flux from grains to the incident solar flux at wavelengths of a few microns is calculated.