Search Publications
Measuring Erosional and Depositional Patterns Across Comet 67P's Imhotep Region
Soderblom, J. M.; Hayes, A. G.; Kirk, R. L. +8 more
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko displays a pronounced hemispherical dichotomy in surface morphology, where the southern hemisphere exhibits more erosional features than the northern hemisphere due to receiving much greater solar radiation. Consequently, it is generally assumed that particles are ejected from the southern hemisphere through sublima…
Quantifying Morphological Changes and Sediment Transport Pathways on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Vincent, J. -B.; Hayes, A. G.; Birch, S. P. D. +3 more
Comets are active geological worlds with primitive surfaces that have been shaped to varying degrees by sublimation-driven sediment transport and mass wasting processes. Rosetta's rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P) in 2014 provided data with the necessary spatial and temporal resolutions to observe many evolutionary processes on…
Magnetic Properties of Asteroid (162173) Ryugu
Motschmann, Uwe; Fujimoto, Masaki; Richter, Ingo +22 more
Observations of the magnetization state of asteroids indicate diverse properties. Values between 1.9 × 10-6 Am2/kg (Eros) and 10-2 Am2/kg (Braille) have been reported. A more detailed understanding of asteroidal magnetic properties allows far-reaching conclusions of the magnetization mechanism as well as…
Infrared Spectroscopy of Large, Low-Albedo Asteroids: Are Ceres and Themis Archetypes or Outliers?
Emery, Joshua P.; Rivkin, Andrew S.; Howell, Ellen S.
Low-albedo, hydrated objects dominate the list of the largest asteroids. These objects have varied spectral shapes in the 3-µm region, where diagnostic absorptions due to volatile species are found. Dawn's visit to Ceres has extended the view shaped by ground-based observing and shown that world to be a complex one, potentially still experie…
Spheroidal and ellipsoidal harmonic expansions of the gravitational potential of small Solar System bodies. Case study: Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Reimond, Stefan; Baur, Oliver
Gravitational features are a fundamental source of information to learn more about the interior structure and composition of planets, moons, asteroids, and comets. Gravitational field modeling typically approximates the target body with a sphere, leading to a representation in spherical harmonics. However, small celestial bodies are often irregula…
Characterization of the permittivity of controlled porous water ice-dust mixtures to support the radar exploration of icy bodies
Thomas, N.; Brouet, Y.; Pommerol, A. +6 more
The internal properties of porous and icy bodies in the solar system can be investigated by ground-penetrating radars (GPRs), like the COmet Nucleus Sounding Experiment by Radiowave Transmission instrument on board the Rosetta spacecraft which has sounded the interior of the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Accurate constraints on the p…
Hot oxygen corona at Mars and the photochemical escape of oxygen: Improved description of the thermosphere, ionosphere, and exosphere
Bougher, Stephen W.; Combi, Michael R.; Tenishev, Valeriy +2 more
The Mars Adaptive Mesh Particle Simulator model is coupled with the Mars Global Ionosphere Thermosphere Model for the first time to provide an improved description of the Martian hot O corona based on our modeling studies of O2+ dissociative recombination. A total of 12 cases comprising three solar activity levels and four or…
Martian atmosphere as observed by VIRTIS-M on Rosetta spacecraft
Langevin, Y.; Rauer, H.; Bellucci, G. +46 more
The Rosetta spacecraft accomplished a flyby of Mars on its way to 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 25 February 2007. In this paper we describe the measurements obtained by the M channel of the Visual and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS-M) and the first scientific results derived from their analysis. The broad spectral coverage of the VIR…
A cometary neutral gas simulator for gas dynamic sensor and mass spectrometer calibration
Wurz, P.; Altwegg, K.; Balsiger, H. +6 more
The goal of the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission is a rendezvous with the Edgewood-Kuiper Belt comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. After the initial encounter the spacecraft will accompany the comet for one to two years toward the Sun and throughout the perihelion passage. For the calibration of the onboard comet mass spectrometers a calibrati…
Prelaunch performance evaluation of the cometary experiment MUPUS-TP
Kührt, E.; Knollenberg, J.; Spohn, T. +13 more
This paper discusses test results obtained in both laboratory and terrestrial environment conditions for the ``Multipurpose Sensors for Surface and Sub-Surface Science'' Thermal Probe (MUPUS-TP), which has been developed for the European Space Agency Rosetta cometary rendezvous mission. The probe is intended to provide in situ long-term observatio…