WISE/NEOWISE Preliminary Analysis and Highlights of the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Near Nucleus Environs
James M. Bauer, Emily Kramer, A. K. Mainzer, Rachel Stevenson, Tommy Grav, Joseph R. Masiero, Russell G. Walker, Yan R. Fernández, Karen J. Meech, Carey M. Liss… 展开作者
James M. Bauer, Emily Kramer, A. K. Mainzer, Rachel Stevenson, Tommy Grav, Joseph R. Masiero, Russell G. Walker, Yan R. Fernández, Karen J. Meech, Carey M. Lisse, Paul R. Weissman, Roc M. Cutri, John W. Dailey, Frank J. Masci, David J. Tholen, George Pearman, Edward L. Wright, the WISE Team
On January 18-19 and June 28-29 of 2010, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft imaged the Rosetta mission target, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. We present a preliminary analysis of the images, which provide a characterization of the dust environment at heliocentric distances similar to those planned for the initial spacecraft encounter, but on the outbound leg of its orbit rather than the inbound. Broad-band photometry yields low levels of CO2 production at a comet heliocentric distance of 3.32 AU and no detectable production at 4.18 AU. We find that at these heliocentric distances, large dust grains with mean grain diameters on the order of a millimeter or greater dominate the coma and evolve to populate the tail. This is further supported by broad-band photometry centered on the nucleus, which yield an estimated differential dust particle size distribution with a power law relation that is considerably shallower than average. We set a 3-sigma upper limit constraint on the albedo of the large-grain dust at <= 0.12. Our best estimate of the nucleus radius (1.82 +/- 0.20 km) and albedo (0.04 +/- 0.01) are in agreement with measurements previously reported in the literature.
Electrical properties and porosity of the first meter of the nucleus of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. As constrained by the Permittivity Probe SESAME-PP/Philae/Rosetta
The dust environment of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from Rosetta OSIRIS and VLT observations in the 4.5 to 2.9 au heliocentric distance range inbound
Nitrogen- and nitrogen-oxygen-bearing organic molecules in comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: An untargeted investigation
University of Bern（伯尔尼大学）；Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS（巴黎南天体物理研究所，巴黎萨克雷大学，法国国家科学研究中心）；Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, University of Michigan（密歇根大学气候与空间科学与工程系）；Southwest Research Institute（西南研究院）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Texas at San Antonio（德克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校物理与天文系）；Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, BIRA-IASB（比利时皇家空间气象学研究所）；Center for Space and Habitability, University of Bern（伯尔尼大学太空与宜居性中心）
Identification of Ammonium Salts on Comet 67P/C-G Surface from Infrared VIRTIS/Rosetta Data Based on Laboratory Experiments. Implications and Perspectives
