IMAGING POLARIMETRY OF COMET-P HALLEY

Comet P/Halley was imaged polarimetrically in the coma and tail region on 5th January 1986. In the inner coma a small region has been found which has very low (<2%) polarization. But in the tailward direction beyond the outer coma (>105 km) two separate regions of enhanced polarizations (>8%) are found. These two regions are probably connected with jet ativities in the comet. The low polarization region in the inner coma can also be connected with a fresh dust jet ejecta, where the low polarization is resulting from multiple scattering in a region of high dust concentration, in the fresh ejecta. In general the polarization vectors have been found to be perpendicular to the scattering plane. © 1990.