Search Publications
Elemental and molecular abundances in comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Mall, Urs; De Keyser, Johan; Hansen, Kenneth C. +18 more
Comets are considered to be some of the most pristine and unprocessed Solar system objects accessible to in situ exploration. Investigating their molecular and elemental composition takes us on a journey back to the early period of our Solar system and possibly even further. In this work, we deduce the bulk abundances of the major volatile species…
Cometary Chemistry and the Origin of Icy Solar System Bodies: The View After Rosetta
Altwegg, Kathrin; Balsiger, Hans; Fuselier, Stephen A.
In situ research of cometary chemistry began when measurements from the Giotto mission at Comet 1P/Halley revealed the presence of complex organics in the coma. New telescopes and space missions have provided detailed remote and in situ measurements of the composition of cometary volatiles. Recently, the Rosetta mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gera…
Synthesis of the morphological description of cometary dust at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Lasue, J.; Langevin, Y.; Krüger, H. +28 more
Before Rosetta, the space missions Giotto and Stardust shaped our view on cometary dust, supported by plentiful data from Earth based observations and interplanetary dust particles collected in the Earth's atmosphere. The Rosetta mission at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was equipped with a multitude of instruments designed to study cometary dust…
Ingredients for solar-like systems: protostar IRAS 16293-2422 B versus comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
van Dishoeck, Ewine F.; Drozdovskaya, Maria N.; Jørgensen, Jes K. +2 more
Our modern day Solar System has 4.6 × 109 yr of evolution behind it with just a few relics of its birth conditions remaining. Comets are thought to be some of the most pristine tracers of the initial ingredients that were combined to produce the Earth and the other planets. Other low-mass protostars may be analogous to our proto-Sun and…
The Nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko - Part I: The global view - nucleus mass, mass-loss, porosity, and implications
Tellmann, Silvia; Pätzold, Martin; Häusler, Bernd +7 more
The radio science experiment RSI on-board Rosetta determined the mass of the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko at the start of the prime mission from 2014 August to November (GM = 666.2 ± 0.2 m3 s-2 or 9982 ± 3 × 1012 kg) and shortly before the end of the mission from 2016 July to September (GM …
Long-term monitoring of the outgassing and composition of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko with the Rosetta/MIRO instrument
Hartogh, P.; Lellouch, E.; Crovisier, J. +14 more
We present the analysis of ≈100 molecular maps of the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko that were obtained with the MIRO submillimeter radiotelescope on board the Rosetta spacecraft. From the spectral line mapping of H216O, H218O, H217O, CH3OH, NH3, and C…
Ross Ice Shelf response to climate driven by the tectonic imprint on seafloor bathymetry
Tinto, K. J.; Padman, L.; Siddoway, C. S. +28 more
Ocean melting has thinned Antarctica's ice shelves at an increasing rate over the past two decades, leading to loss of grounded ice. The Ross Ice Shelf is currently close to steady state but geological records indicate that it can disintegrate rapidly, which would accelerate grounded ice loss from catchments equivalent to 11.6 m of global sea leve…
The Thermal, Mechanical, Structural, and Dielectric Properties of Cometary Nuclei After Rosetta
Kührt, E.; Gundlach, B.; Davidsson, B. +16 more
The physical properties of cometary nuclei observed today relate to their complex history and help to constrain their formation and evolution. In this article, we review some of the main physical properties of cometary nuclei and focus in particular on the thermal, mechanical, structural and dielectric properties, emphasising the progress made dur…
Surface localization of gas sources on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko based on DFMS/COPS data
Altwegg, Kathrin; Rubin, Martin; Läuter, Matthias +1 more
We reconstruct the temporal evolution of the source distribution for the four major gas species H2O, CO2, CO, and O2 on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during its 2015 apparition. The analysis applies an inverse coma model and fits to data between 2014 August 6 and 2016 September 5 measured with the …
Dust of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko collected by Rosetta/MIDAS: classification and extension to the nanometer scale
Ehrenfreund, P.; Bentley, M. S.; Mannel, T. +9 more
Context. The properties of the smallest subunits of cometary dust contain information on their origin and clues to the formation of planetesimals and planets. Compared to interplanetary dust particles or particles collected during the Stardust mission, dust collected in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P) during the Rosetta mission p…