Related papers: Cometary dust analogues for physics experiments

Cosmic dust models are key ingredients in advancing our understanding of astronomical environments as diverse as interstellar clouds in galaxies, circumstellar envelopes around evolved and young stars, and protoplanetary disks. Such models…

Partial condensation of dust from the Solar nebula is likely responsible for the diverse chemical compositions of chondrites and rocky planets/planetesimals in the inner Solar system. We present a forward physical-chemical model of a…

The relation between ice composition in the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on the one hand and relative abundances of volatiles in the coma on the other hand is important for the interpretation of density measurements in the…

In cold, dense astrophysical environments dust grains are mixed with molecular ices. Chemistry in those dust/ice mixtures is determined by diffusion and reaction of molecules and radicals. However, investigations of diffusion of…

This paper is the result of the International Cometary Workshop, held in Toulouse, France in April 2014, where the participants came together to assess our knowledge of comets prior to the ESA Rosetta Mission. In this paper, we look at the…

Surface chemistry on cosmic dust grains plays an important role in the formation of molecules at low temperatures in the interstellar and circumstellar environments. For the first time, we experimentally put in evidence the catalytic role…

The ESA Rosetta spacecraft, currently orbiting around comet 67P, has already provided in situ measurements of the dust grain properties from several instruments, particularly OSIRIS and GIADA. We propose adding value to those measurements…

Comets hold the key to the understanding of our solar system, its formation and its evolution, and to the fundamental plasma processes at work both in it and beyond it. A comet nucleus emits gas as it is heated by the sunlight. The gas…

We present a statistical approach to assess the dust environment for a yet unknown comet (or when its parameters are known only with large uncertainty). This is of particular importance for missions such as ESA's Comet Interceptor mission…

We aim to catalog all dust particles collected and analyzed by MIDAS, together with their main statistical properties such as size, height, basic shape descriptors, and collection time. Furthermore, we aim to present the scientific results…

Comets can be divided into two groups: type I, characterized by high gas/dust ratio, low polarization, and a weak or absent 10 micron silicate feature, and type II, for which a low gas/dust ratio, high polarization, and strong silicate…

The gas-driven dust activity of comets is still an unresolved question in cometary science. In the past, it was believed that comets are dirty snowballs and that the dust is ejected when the ice retreats. However, thanks to the various…

A fundamental question in cometary science is whether the different dynamical classes of comets have different chemical compositions, which would reflect different initial conditions. From the ground or Earth orbit, radio and infrared…

In this chapter, we provide a review of radiative processes in cometary atmospheres spanning a broad range of wavelengths, from radio to X-rays. We focus on spectral modeling, observational opportunities, and anticipated challenges in the…

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…

Determining temperatures in molecular clouds from ratios of CO rotational lines or from ratios of continuum emission in different wavelength bands suffers from reduced temperature sensitivity in the high-temperature limit. In theory, the…

To date, at least three comets -- 2I/Borisov, C/2016 R2 (PanSTARRS), and C/2009 P1 (Garradd) -- have been observed to have unusually high CO concentrations compared to water. We attempt to explain these observations by modeling the effect…

Cometary outbursts offer a valuable window into the composition of comet nuclei with their forceful ejection of dust and volatiles in explosive events, revealing the interior components of the comet. Understanding how different types of…

Comets have been invoked in numerous studies as a potentially important source of dust and gas around stars, but none has studied the thermo-physical evolution, out-gassing rate, and dust ejection of these objects in such stellar systems.…

Molecular clouds are regions of dense gas and dust in space where new stars and planets are born. There is a strong correlation between the distribution of dust and molecular gas in molecular clouds. The present work focuses on the…