Solar wind mass‐Loading at comet Halley: A lesson from Venus?

Recent observations at comet Halley show that the region within which cometary ions become the dominant component lies outside of the magnetic field‐free cavity. This behavior resembles that found at Venus under conditions where the incident solar wind dynamic pressure exceeds the ionospheric pressure. On these occasions the magnetosheath magnetic field is found well inside of the region where planetary ions are observed. Although scaling and the details of formation of the inner boundary of the magnetic field are different for these two objects, the processes by which the interplanetary magnetic field penetrates into the ionospheres at Venus and at Comet Halley are in many ways analogous.