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Cometary Dust
Langevin, Yves; Thomas, Nicolas; Agarwal, Jessica +11 more
This review presents our understanding of cometary dust at the end of 2017. For decades, insight about the dust ejected by nuclei of comets had stemmed from remote observations from Earth or Earth's orbit, and from flybys, including the samples of dust returned to Earth for laboratory studies by the Stardust return capsule. The long-duration Roset…
Water Reservoirs in Small Planetary Bodies: Meteorites, Asteroids, and Comets
Altwegg, Kathrin; Alexander, Conel M. O'D.; McKeegan, Kevin D.
Asteroids and comets are the remnants of the swarm of planetesimals from which the planets ultimately formed, and they retain records of processes that operated prior to and during planet formation. They are also likely the sources of most of the water and other volatiles accreted by Earth. In this review, we discuss the nature and probable origin…
Origin of Molecular Oxygen in Comets: Current Knowledge and Perspectives
Mousis, Olivier; Bouquet, Alexis; Lunine, Jonathan I. +10 more
The Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) instrument onboard the Rosetta spacecraft has measured molecular oxygen (O2) in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P/C-G) in surprisingly high abundances. These measurements mark the first unequivocal detection of O2 in a cometary environment. …
Presolar Isotopic Signatures in Meteorites and Comets: New Insights from the Rosetta Mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Hoppe, Peter; Altwegg, Kathrin; Rubin, Martin
Comets are considered the most primitive planetary bodies in our Solar System, i.e., they should have best preserved the solid components of the matter from which our Solar System formed. ESA's recent Rosetta mission to Jupiter family comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P/CG) has provided a wealth of isotope data which expanded the existing data se…
ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) Science Ground Segment (SGS)
Metcalfe, L.; Geiger, B.; Lim, T. +19 more
The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) Science Ground Segment (SGS), comprised of payload Instrument Team, ESA and Russian operational centres, is responsible for planning the science operations of the TGO mission and for the generation and archiving of the scientific data products to levels meeting the scientific aims and criteria specified by the E…