Dust measurements in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko inbound to the Sun

Rotundi, Alessandra; Sierks, Holger; Della Corte, Vincenzo; Fulle, Marco; Gutierrez, Pedro J.; Lara, Luisa; Barbieri, Cesare; Lamy, Philippe L.; Rodrigo, Rafael; Koschny, Detlef; Rickman, Hans; Keller, Horst Uwe; Lopez-Moreno, Jose J.; Accolla, Mario; Agarwal, Jessica; A'Hearn, Michael F.; Altobelli, Nicolas; Angrilli, Francesco; Barucci, M. Antonietta; Bertaux, Jean-Loup; ... (2015). Dust measurements in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko inbound to the Sun. Science, 347(6220), aaa3905-aaa3905. American Association for the Advancement of Science 10.1126/science.aaa3905

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Critical measurements for understanding accretion and the dust/gas ratio in the solar nebula, where planets were forming 4.5 billion years ago, are being obtained by the GIADA (Grain Impact Analyser and Dust Accumulator) experiment on the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft orbiting comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Between 3.6 and 3.4 astronomical units inbound, GIADA and OSIRIS (Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System) detected 35 outflowing grains of mass 10(-10) to 10(-7) kilograms, and 48 grains of mass 10(-5) to 10(-2) kilograms, respectively. Combined with gas data from the MIRO (Microwave Instrument for the Rosetta Orbiter) and ROSINA (Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis) instruments, we find a dust/gas mass ratio of 4 +/- 2 averaged over the sunlit nucleus surface. A cloud of larger grains also encircles the nucleus in bound orbits from the previous perihelion. The largest orbiting clumps are meter-sized, confirming the dust/gas ratio of 3 inferred at perihelion from models of dust comae and trails.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Physics Institute > Space Research and Planetary Sciences

UniBE Contributor:

Thomas, Nicolas

Subjects:

500 Science > 530 Physics

ISSN:

0036-8075

Publisher:

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Language:

English

Submitter:

Katharina Weyeneth-Moser

Date Deposited:

15 Jun 2016 15:58

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:55

Publisher DOI:

10.1126/science.aaa3905

Web of Science ID:

000348225800029

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.81704

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/81704

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