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Rosetta’s comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko sheds its dusty mantle to reveal its icy nature

Jorda, L.; Lamy, P. L.; Bertaux, J. -L. +50 more

The Rosetta spacecraft has investigated comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from large heliocentric distances to its perihelion passage and beyond. We trace the seasonal and diurnal evolution of the colors of the 67P nucleus, finding changes driven by sublimation and recondensation of water ice. The whole nucleus became relatively bluer near perihelio…

Flux and composition of interstellar dust at Saturn from Cassini’s Cosmic Dust Analyzer

Kempf, S.; Postberg, F.; Srama, R. +12 more

Interstellar dust (ISD) is the condensed phase of the interstellar medium. In situ data from the Cosmic Dust Analyzer on board the Cassini spacecraft reveal that the Saturnian system is passed by ISD grains from our immediate interstellar neighborhood, the local interstellar cloud. We determine the mass distribution of 36 interstellar grains, thei…

Molecular gas in the halo fuels the growth of a massive cluster galaxy at high redshift

Pentericci, L.; Villar-Martín, M.; Dannerbauer, H. +19 more

The largest galaxies in the universe reside in galaxy clusters. Using sensitive observations of carbon monoxide, we show that the Spiderweb galaxy—a massive galaxy in a distant protocluster—is forming from a large reservoir of molecular gas. Most of this molecular gas lies between the protocluster galaxies and has low velocity dispersion, indicati…

Seasonal exposure of carbon dioxide ice on the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Langevin, Y.; Bellucci, G.; Jaumann, R. +75 more

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is one of the most abundant species in cometary nuclei, but because of its high volatility, CO₂ ice is generally only found beneath the surface. We report the infrared spectroscopic identification of a CO₂ ice-rich surface area located in the Anhur region of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Spe…

Cassini detects interstellar dust grains

Smith, Keith T.

Rosetta observes sublimating surface ices

Smith, Keith T.

Rosetta ends 2-year comet mission with final descent

Clery, Daniel