Comets: production mechanisms of hydroxyl and hydrogen halos.
The brightness dependence on the heliocentric distance that has been observed for the hydrogen and the hydroxyl halos of comet 1969g can be quantitatively explained by a three-step process: the vaporization of the water snows, the photodissociation of the water molecule into the ground states of hydrogen and hydroxyl, and the photoexcitation of hydrogen and hydroxyl by a fluorescence mechanism.
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