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Cometary dust trail associated with Rosetta mission target: 67P/Churyumov Gerasimenko

Ishiguro, Masateru

A thin, bright dust cloud, which is associated with the Rosetta mission target object (67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko), was observed after the 2002 perihelion passage. The neckline structure or dust trail nature of this cloud is controversial. In this paper, we definitively identify the dust trail and the neckline structure using a wide-field CCD camer…

Visible and near infrared spectroscopic investigation of E-type asteroids, including 2867 Steins, a target of the Rosetta mission

Barucci, M. A.; Fornasier, S.; Dotto, E. +1 more

We present the results of a visible spectroscopic survey of igneous asteroids belonging to the small and intriguing E-class, including 2867 Steins, a target of the Rosetta mission. The survey was carried out at the 3.5 m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), and at the 3.5 m New Technology Telescope (NTT) of the European Southern Observatory. We obt…

The dust trail of Comet 67P/Churyumov Gerasimenko

Reach, William T.; Kelley, Michael S.; Lien, David J.

We report the detection of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko's dust trail and nucleus in 24 µm Spitzer Space Telescope images taken February 2004. The dust trail is not found in optical Palomar images taken June 2003. Both the optical and infrared images show a distinct neck-line tail structure, offset from the projected orbit of the comet. We…

Asteroid exosphere: A simulation for the ROSETTA flyby targets (2867) Steins and (21) Lutetia

Wurz, P.; Altwegg, K.; Schläppi, B.

Asteroids (2867) Steins and (21) Lutetia are two flyby targets of ESA's cornerstone mission Rosetta. Since Rosetta is a cometary mission, some of the instruments are designed to investigate the surroundings of small bodies. To prepare the operation of these instruments, in our case the ROSINA instrument, for the asteroid flyby's, we adapted a Mont…