Polarization Studies Of Comet C/2000 Wm1 (Linear)

Linear polarization observations were carried out on comet C/2000 WM1 with the 1.2 m telescope at Mt. Abu Observatory during November 2001 and March 2002. The observations in November were at low phase angle (<22 degrees) when the polarization is negative and where the data for most of the comets are rather meager. The observations during March were made when the phase angle was similar to 47 degrees. Observations were conducted through the IHW narrow band and BVR broad band filters. Based on these polarization observations we infer that the comet C/2000 WM1 belongs to high polarization class i.e. the dusty comet family.