Related papers: The Composition of Comets
We review the development of dust science from the first ground-based astronomical observations of dust in space to compositional analysis of individual dust particles and their source objects. A multitude of observational techniques is…
On 3 July 2016, several instruments on board ESA's Rosetta spacecraft detected signs of an outburst event on comet 67P, at a heliocentric distance of 3.32 AU from the sun, outbound from perihelion. We here report on the inferred properties…
Cometary dust particles are remnants of the primordial accretion of refractory material that occurred during the initial stages of the Solar System formation. Understanding their physical structure can help constrain their accretion…
When the EPOXI spacecraft flew by Comet 103P/Hartley 2, it observed large particles floating around the comet nucleus. These particles are likely low-density, centimeter- to decimeter-sized clumps of ice and dust. While the origin of these…
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as the largest space-based astronomical observatory with near- and mid-infrared instrumentation, will elucidate many mysterious aspects of comets. We summarize four cometary science themes especially…
The phase function of the dust coma of comet 67P has been determined from Rosetta/OSIRIS images \citep{Bertini17}. This function show a deep minimum at phase angles near 100$^\circ$, and a strong backscattering enhancement. These two…
Remote observations of comets, especially using high spectral resolution millimeter spectroscopy, have enabled the detection of over 25 molecules in comets for the last twenty years. Among the molecules identified at radio wavelengths,…
We present observations of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during its 2021/22 apparition, aiming to investigate its dust and gas environment and compare the results with those obtained in 2015/16 using the same telescope. Quasi-simultaneous…
Comets are a rich reservoir of complex organic molecules. Ground and space-based observatories have recently greatly enhanced the cometary molecular inventory. Although these molecules' origin is believed to be the cometary nucleus, they…
We present a method to analyze images of the coma of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko obtained using OSIRIS, the main imaging system onboard \textit{Rosetta}, where dust aggregates can be seen as bright tracks because of their relative velocity…
The European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft Rosetta accompanied the Jupiter-family comet (JFC) 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko for over two years along its trajectory through the inner solar system. Between 2014 and 2016, it performed almost…
We present a simple model for gas and dust flow from 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko that can be used to understand the grain impact observed by the DIM instrument on Philae (Krueger et al. 2015) We show how model results when applied to the…
The nature of the icy material accreted by comets during their formation in the outer regions of the protosolar nebula is a major open question in planetary science. Some scenarios of comet formation predict that these bodies agglomerated…
We here study the transfer process of material from one hemisphere to the other (deposition of airfall material) on an active comet nucleus, specifically 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Our goals are to: 1) quantify the thickness of the airfall…
Results. We found that gas-phase silicon was present throughout the Rosetta mission. Furthermore, the presence of sodium and iron atoms near the comet's perihelion confirms that sputtering cannot be the sole release process for refractory…
The process of cometary activity continues to pose a challenging question in cometary science. The activity modeling of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, based on data from the Rosetta mission, has significantly enhanced our comprehension of…
The ESA Rosetta spacecraft has been tracking its target, the Jupiter-family comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, in close vicinity for over two years. It hosts the OSIRIS instruments: the Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging…
We review recent studies of organic molecule formation in dense molecular clouds and in comets. We summarise the known organic inventories of molecular clouds and recent comets, particularly Hale-Bopp. The principal chemical formation…
Optical properties are required for the correct understanding and modelling of protoplanetary and debris discs. By assuming that comets are the most pristine bodies in the solar system, our goal is to derive optical constants of real…
The origin of Phobos and Deimos in a giant impact generated disk is gaining larger attention. Although this scenario has been the subject of many studies, an evaluation of the chemical composition of the Mars' moons in this framework is…