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Revisiting cometary bow shock positions
Glassmeier, K. -H.; Richter, I.; Rubin, M. +2 more
The Rosetta spacecraft will arrive at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014 and will escort the comet along its journey around the Sun. The predicted outgassing rate of the comet and the solar wind properties close to its perihelion at 1.24 AU lead to the expectation that a cometary bow shock will form during the escort phase. Since the forecast…
ROSINA/DFMS capabilities to measure isotopic ratios in water at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Altwegg, K.; Balsiger, H.; Berthelier, J. J. +7 more
The likelihood that comets may have delivered part of the water to Earth has been reinforced by the recent observation of the earth-like D/H ratio in Jupiter-family comet 103P/Hartley 2 by Hartogh et al. (2012). Prior to this observation, results from several Oort cloud comets indicated a factor of 2 enrichment of deuterium relative to the abundan…
Probing the flyby anomaly with the future STE-QUEST mission
Hechenblaikner, G.; Páramos, Jorge
In this study, we demonstrate that the flyby anomaly, an unexpected acceleration detected in some of the gravitational assists of the Galileo, NEAR, Cassini and Rosetta spacecraft, could be probed by accurate orbital tracking available in the proposed Space-Time Explorer and Quantum Equivalence Principle Space Test (STE-QUEST); following a recent …
Dust Impact Monitor (DIM) onboard Rosetta/Philae: Comparison of experimental results and the theory behind the experiment
Flandes, Alberto; Krüger, Harald; Loose, Alexander +4 more
The Dust Impact Monitor (DIM) experiment on board the Rosetta spacecraft's lander, Philae, is a cube with three sides covered with piezo-electric (PZT) sensors (total sensitive area: ≈70cm2), aimed at measuring the physical properties of millimetric and sub-millimetric dust particles that move near the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov - G…
Operation of CONSERT aboard Rosetta during the descent of Philae
Plettemeier, Dirk; Kofman, Wlodek; Herique, Alain +3 more
This paper presents a study investigating the performance of using the CONSERT instrument aboard the Rosetta spacecraft as a radar sounder during the Separation-Descent-Landing (SDL) phase of the Rosetta mission. Gathering scientifically valuable data during this phase will support CONSERT's primary target, the reconstruction of the 3D permittivit…
Sub-millimeter observations of the terrestrial atmosphere during an Earth flyby of the MIRO sounder on the Rosetta spacecraft
Encrenaz, T.; Lee, S.; Gulkis, S. +5 more
Sub-millimeter spectra recorded by the MIRO sounder aboard the Rosetta spacecraft have been used at the time of an Earth flyby (November 2007) to check the consistency and validity of the instrumental data. High-resolution spectroscopic data were recorded in 8 channels in the vicinity of the strong water line at 557 GHz, and in a broad band contin…
Model of dust thermal emission of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for the Rosetta/MIRO instrument
Gulkis, Samuel; Bockelée-Morvan, Dominique; Biver, Nicolas +4 more
The ESA's Rosetta spacecraft will arrive at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. The study of gas and dust emission is primary objective of several instruments on the Rosetta spacecraft, including the Microwave Instrument for the Rosetta Orbiter (MIRO). We developed a model of dust thermal emission to estimate the detectability of dust in the …