Related papers: The Composition of Comets
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was selected in 2003 as the new target of the Rosetta mission. It has since been the subject of a detailed campaign of observations to characterise its nucleus and activity. Here we present previously…
Studies of the water content and isotopic composition of water-rich asteroids and comets are of key interest for understanding the late accretion stage of the Solar System cometary and chondritic materials. The PRobe far-infrared Mission…
When comet nuclei approach the Sun, the increasing energy flux through the surface layers leads to sublimation of the underlying ices and subsequent outgassing that promotes the observed emission of gas and dust. The ejection of dust…
The Ion Composition Analyzer (ICA) on the Rosetta spacecraft observed both the solar wind and the cometary ionosphere around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for nearly two years. However, observations of low energy cometary ions were…
Gas-phase molecules in cometary atmospheres (comae) originate primarily from (1) outgassing by the nucleus, (2) sublimation of icy grains in the near-nucleus coma, and (3) coma (photo-)chemical processes. However, the majority of cometary…
Context. During the post-perihelion phase of the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission to comet 67P, the Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System on board the spacecraft took numerous image sequences of the near-nucleus…
We reconstruct the temporal evolution of the source distribution for the four major gas species H2O, CO2, CO, and O2 on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during its 2015 apparition. The analysis applies an inverse coma model…
This paper explores the uniqueness of ESA Rosetta mission operations from the Alice instrument point of view, documents lessons learned, and suggests operations ideas for future missions. The Alice instrument mounted on the Rosetta orbiter…
We calculate the momentum flux and pressure of ions measured by the Ion Composition Analyzer (ICA) on the Rosetta mission at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The total momentum flux stays roughly constant over the mission, but the…
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P) become observable for the first time in 2021 since the Rosetta rendezvous in 2014--16. Here, we present pre-perihelion polarimetric measurements of 67P from 2021 performed with the Very Large Telescope…
On November 12, 2014, the ESA/Rosetta descent module Philae landed on the Abydos site of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Aboard this module, the Ptolemy mass spectrometer measured a CO/CO2 ratio of 0.07 +/- 0.04 which differs substantially…
Photometric and spectroscopic observations of five nearly parabolic comets with eccentricity larger than 0.99 at heliocentric distances greater than 4 AU were performed. No molecular emission was observed for any studied comet and the…
Comets likely formed in the outer regions of the protosolar nebula where they incorporated and preserved primitive presolar materials, volatiles resident in the outer disk, and more refractory materials from throughout the disk. The return…
Comets are considered as the most primitive objects in the Solar System. Their composition provides information on the composition of the primitive solar nebula, 4.6 Gyr ago. The radio domain is a privileged tool to study the composition of…
The ESA Rosetta mission has allowed an extensive in-situ study of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. In measurements performed by the ram gauge of the on-board COmet Pressure Sensor (COPS), features have been observed that deviate from the…
The close encounter of Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) with Mars on October 19, 2014 presented an extremely rare opportunity to obtain the first flyby quality data of the nucleus and inner coma of a dynamically new comet. However, the…
The study of the last stages of planet formation, also known as debris disks, is fundamental to place constrains on the formation of planetary sized bodies. Debris disks are composed of dust and occasionally small amounts of gas, both…
We analyze 2-5 micrometre spectroscopic observations of the dust coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko obtained with the VIRTIS-H instrument onboard Rosetta from 3 June to 29 October 2015 at heliocentric distances r_h = 1.24-1.55 AU. The…
The standard approach to obtaining knowledge about the properties of the surface layer of a comet from observations of gas production consists of two stages. First, various thermophysical models are used to calculate gas production for a…
Aims. The Alice far-ultraviolet spectrograph onboard Rosetta is designed to observe emissions from various atomic and molecular species from within the coma of comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko and to determine their spatial distribution and…