Temporal morphological changes in the Imhotep region of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Groussin, O.; Sierks, H.; Barbieri, C.; Lamy, P.; Rodrigo, R.; Koschny, D.; Rickman, H.; Keller, H. U.; A'Hearn, M. F.; Auger, A. T.; Barucci, M. A.; Bertaux, J. L.; Bertini, I.; Besse, S.; Cremonese, G.; Da Deppo, V.; Davidsson, B.; Debei, S.; De Cecco, M.; Elmaarry, Mohamed Ramy; ... (2015). Temporal morphological changes in the Imhotep region of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Astronomy and astrophysics, 583(A36), A36. EDP Sciences 10.1051/0004-6361/201527020

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Aims. We report on the first major temporal morphological changes observed on the surface of the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in the smooth terrains of the Imhotep region. Methods. We used images of the OSIRIS cameras onboard Rosetta to follow the temporal changes from 24 May 2015 to 11 July 2015. Results. The morphological changes observed on the surface are visible in the form of roundish features that are growing in size from a given location in a preferential direction at a rate of 5.6-8.1 x 10(-5) m s(-1) during the observational period. The location where the changes started and the contours of the expanding features are bluer than the surroundings, which suggests that ices (H2O and/or CO2) are exposed on the surface. However, sublimation of ices alone is not sufficient to explain the observed expanding features. No significant variations in the dust activity pattern are observed during the period of changes.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

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

UniBE Contributor:

Elmaarry, Mohamed Ramy, Pommerol, Antoine, Thomas, Nicolas

Subjects:

500 Science > 520 Astronomy
500 Science > 530 Physics

ISSN:

0004-6361

Publisher:

EDP Sciences

Language:

English

Submitter:

Katharina Weyeneth-Moser

Date Deposited:

14 Jun 2016 15:10

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:55

Publisher DOI:

10.1051/0004-6361/201527020

Web of Science ID:

000365072200136

ArXiv ID:

1509.02794

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.81665

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/81665

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