English

New gravity field of comet 67P/C-G based on Rosetta's Doppler and optical data

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2024-09-05 v1

Abstract

We provide a new gravity field of Comet 67P-C/G up to degree 4. We detect mass heterogeneity in the comet nucleus. The loss of mass is restimated at 0.28\% of the comet's total mass (3 times larger than previous estimate). Comparison of the gravity field between pre- and post-perihelion allowed us to measure a shift in the comet's center of gravity of 35 m northward, attributed to ice sublimation process.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2409.02692,
  title  = {New gravity field of comet 67P/C-G based on Rosetta's Doppler and optical data},
  author = {Julien Laurent-Varin and Théo James and Jean-Charles Marty and Laurent Jorda and Sebastien Le Maistre and Robert Gaskell},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.02692},
  year   = {2024}
}