Particulate mass loss from comet Hale-Bopp

Large particles may be present in comets in numbers sufficient to dominate the total mass of the coma. These large particles are not readily sensed by conventional (optical - infrared) techniques but are prominent at submilli meter wavelengths. Images taken using a new camera sensitive to submillimet er wavelengths reveal that comet Hale-Bopp was a prodigious source of parti culate matter, releasing dust at 2000 metric tons per second when near peri helion and contributing 3 x 10(13) kg to the interplanetary dust complex. T he dust production rate exceeded that of gas (mostly water) by a factor gre ater than 5.