Observations of comets in the 18-cm OH transitions offer a means to probe gas production, kinematics, and OH excitation in comets. We present initial results of OH observations of comet Hale-Bopp obtained with the NRAO 43 m antenna located in Greenbank, WV. Maps of the emission provide strong constraints on the amount of quenching of the inversion of the OH ground state A-doublet in the coma. Analysis of the total radio OH flux and maps of its radial brightness distribution indicate a quenched region on the order of approximately 500,000 km during March and April 1997. This large value is generally consistent with previous observations of radio OH quenching in lower production rate comets when the high production rate of comet Hale-Bopp is considered.

中文翻译：

---

来自黑尔-波普彗星的OH辐射的碰撞猝灭。

观察18厘米OH跃迁中的彗星为探测彗星中的气体产生，运动学和OH激发提供了一种方法。我们介绍了位于西弗吉尼亚州格林班克的NRAO 43 m天线获得的Hale-Bopp彗星OH观测结果的初步结果。发射图对昏迷中OH基态A-双峰反转的猝灭量提供了强大的约束。对总的放射性OH通量的分析和其径向亮度分布图表明，在1997年3月和4月，淬火区域约为500,000 km。这个大的值通常与以前观察到的在较低生产率的彗星上进行的OH淬灭有关。 Hale-Bopp彗星的生产率很高。