Evidence of sub-surface energy storage in comet 67P from the outburst of 2016 July 03

Agarwal, J.; Della Corte, V.; Feldman, P. D.; Geiger, B.; Merouane, S.; Bertini, I.; Bodewits, D.; Fornasier, S.; Grün, E.; Hasselmann, P.; Hilchenbach, M.; Höfner, S.; Ivanovski, S.; Kolokolova, L.; Pajola, M.; Rotundi, A.; Sierks, H.; Steffl, A. J.; Thomas, Nicolas; A'Hearn, M. F.; ... (2017). Evidence of sub-surface energy storage in comet 67P from the outburst of 2016 July 03. Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 469(Suppl_2), s606-s625. Oxford University Press 10.1093/mnras/stx2386

[img]
Preview
Text
stx2386.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Publisher holds Copyright.

Download (10MB) | Preview

On 2016 July 03, several instruments onboard 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 of the ejected dust and the surface change at the site of the outburst. The activity coincided with the local sunrise and continued over a time interval of 14–68 min. It left a 10-m-sized icy patch on the surface. The ejected material comprised refractory grains of several hundred microns in size, and sub-micron-sized water ice grains. The high dust mass production rate is incompatible with the free sublimation of crystalline water ice under solar illumination as the only acceleration process. Additional energy stored near the surface must have increased the gas density. We suggest a pressurized sub-surface gas reservoir, or the crystallization of amorphous water ice as possible causes.

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 > 520 Astronomy
600 Technology > 620 Engineering

ISSN:

0035-8711

Publisher:

Oxford University Press

Language:

English

Submitter:

Dora Ursula Zimmerer

Date Deposited:

06 Apr 2018 15:51

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:08

Publisher DOI:

10.1093/mnras/stx2386

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.107602

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/107602

Actions (login required)

Edit item Edit item
Provide Feedback