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An Early Look of Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring): Breathtaker or Nightmare?
Ye, Quan-Zhi; Hui, Man-To
The dynamically new comet, C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring), is to make a close approach to Mars on 2014 October 19 at 18:30 UT at a distance of 40 ± 1 Martian radii. Such an extremely rare event offers a precious opportunity for the spacecrafts on Mars to closely study a dynamically new comet itself as well as the planet-comet interaction. Meanwhile, th…
Formaldehyde Chemistry in Cometary Ices: On the Prospective Detection of NH2CH2OH, HOCH2OH, and POM by the On-board ROSINA Instrument of the Rosetta Mission
Duvernay, F.; Danger, G.; Theulé, P. +2 more
The thermal reactivity of a water-dominated cometary ice analog containing H2CO and NH3 is investigated by means of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and B3LYP calculations. Three products are characterized by these techniques: aminomethanol (NH2CH2OH), methyleneglycol (HOCH
Mass Transport around Comets and its Impact on the Seasonal Differences in Water Production Rates
Altwegg, K.; Thomas, N.; Combi, M. R. +4 more
Comets are surrounded by a thin expanding atmosphere, and although the nucleus' gravity is small, some molecules and grains, possibly with the inclusion of ices, can get transported around the nucleus through scattering (atoms/molecules) and gravitational pull (grains). Based on the obliquity of the comet, it is also possible that volatile materia…
The Global Morphology of the Solar Wind Interaction with Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Mendis, D. A.; Horányi, M.
The forthcoming Rosetta-Philae mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko provides a novel opportunity to observe the variable nature of the solar wind interaction with a comet over an extended range of heliocentric distance. We use a simple analytical one-dimensional MHD model to estimate the sizes of the two most prominent features in the global…