Aims. Understanding the activity is vital for deciphering the structure, formation, and evolution of comets. We investigate models of cometary activity by comparing them to the dynamics of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Methods. We matched simple thermal models of water activity to the combined Rosetta datasets by fitting to the total outgassing rate and four components of the outgassing induced non-gravitational force and torque, with a final manual adjustment of the model parameters to additionally match the other two torque components. We parametrised the thermal model in terms of a distribution of relative activity over the surface of the comet, and attempted to link this to different terrain types. We also tested a more advanced thermal model based on a pebble structure. Results. We confirm a hemispherical dichotomy and non-linear water outgassing response to insolation. The southern hemisphere of the comet and consolidated terrain show enhanced activity relative to the northern hemisphere and dust-covered, unconsolidated terrain types, especially at perihelion. We further find that the non-gravitational torque is especially sensitive to the activity distribution, and to fit the pole-axis orientation in particular, activity must be concentrated (in excess of the already high activity in the southern hemisphere and consolidated terrain) around the south pole and on the body and neck of the comet over its head. This is the case for both the simple thermal model and the pebble-based model. Overall, our results show that water activity cannot be matched by a simple model of sublimating surface ice driven by the insolation alone, regardless of the surface distribution, and that both local spatial and temporal variations are needed to fit the data.
A Simple Model for Understanding the DIM Dust Measurement at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
我们提出了一个简单的67 P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko气体和尘埃流模型，可用于理解菲莱DIM仪器观察到的颗粒影响（Krueger等人，2015年）我们展示了模型结果如何应用于GIADA测量（Rotundi等人，2015年; Della Corte等人，2015年），结合MIRO（Schloerb等人，2015年）和VIRTIS（De Sanctis等人，2015年）仪器发现的结果，推断表面特性，如地面温度和表面冰分数。
We show that the scattering phase functions of the coma and the nucleus of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko measured by the Rosetta/OSIRIS instrument can be reproduced by a particle model involving clustered densely packed submicrometer-sized grains composed of organic material and larger micrometer-sized silicate grains. The simulated and measured coma phase functions suggest that near the nucleus scattering is dominated by large particles, and the size distribution of dust particles varies with time and/or local coma environment. Further, we show that the measured nucleus phase function i…
The OSIRIS/NAC camera onboard the Rosetta spacecraft acquired approximately 27000 images of comet 67PChuryumov-Gerasimenko at spatial scales down to a few centimeters. Numerous sequences of images separated by a few minutes suitable to stereo reconstruction allowed producing anaglyphs. They offer three-dimensional views complementary to other technics as a tool to understand the topography of the nucleus. Each one is documented by a set of 17 parameters. Over 1820 anaglyphs are available on a dedicated website at https://rosetta-3dcomet.cnes.fr
The Rosetta mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko has provided new data to better understand what comets are made of. The weak tensile strength of the cometary surface materials suggests that the comet is a hierarchical dust aggregate formed through gravitational collapse of a bound clump of small dust aggregates so-called ``pebbles'' in the gaseous solar nebula. Since pebbles are the building blocks of comets, which are the survivors of planetesimals in the solar nebula, estimating the size of pebbles using a combination of thermal observations and numerical calculations is of great impo…
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 in comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the target of the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission. The basis are measurements obtained with the ROSINA instrument suite on board the Rosetta orbiter during a suitable period of high outgassing near periheli…
The ROSINA mass spectrometer DFMS on board ESA's Rosetta spacecraft detected the major isotopes of the noble gases argon, krypton, and xenon in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Earlier, it has been shown that xenon exhibits an isotopic composition distinct from anywhere else in the solar system. However, argon isotopes, within error, were shown to be consistent with solar isotope abundances. This discrepancy suggested an additional exotic component of xenon in comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Here we show that also krypton exhibits an isotopic composition close to solar. Furthermor…
When interacting, the solar wind and the ionised atmosphere of a comet exchange energy and momentum. Our aim is to understand the influence of the average Parker spiral configuration of the solar wind magnetic field on this interaction. We compare the theoretical expectations of an analytical generalised gyromotion with Rosetta observations at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. A statistical approach allows one to overcome the lack of upstream solar wind measurement. We find that additionally to their acceleration along (for cometary pick-up ions) or against (for solar wind ions) the upstream el…
Here, we report the detection of phosphorus and fluorine in solid particles collected from the inner coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko measured with the COmetary Secondary Ion Mass Analyser (COSIMA) instrument on-board the Rosetta spacecraft, only a few kilometers away from the comet nucleus. We have detected phosphorus-containing minerals from the presented COSIMA mass spectra, and can rule out e.g. apatite minerals as the source of phosphorus. This result completes the detection of life-necessary CHNOPS-elements in solid cometary matter, indicating cometary delivery as a potential sour…
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 August 6th 2014 and September 5th 2016 measured with the Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer (DFMS) of the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) and the COmet Pressure Sensor (COPS). The spatial distribution of gas sources with their temporal variation allows one to construct surface maps for gas emissions an…
In 2004, the Rosetta spacecraft was sent to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for the first ever long-term investigation of a comet. After its arrival in 2014, the spacecraft spent more than two years in immediate proximity to the comet. During these two years, the ROSINA Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer (DFMS) onboard Rosetta discovered a coma with an unexpectedly complex chemical composition that included many oxygenated molecules. Determining the exact cometary composition is an essential first step to understanding of the organic rich chemistry in star forming regions and protoplanetary dis…
The cometary materials are thought to be the reservoir of primitive materials in the Solar System. The recent detection of glycine and CH$_3$NH$_2$ by the ROSINA mass spectrometer in the coma of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko suggests that amino acids and their precursors may have been formed in an early evolutionary phase of the Solar System. We investigate the evolution of cometary interior considering the evaporation process of water followed by the concentration of non-volatile species. We develop a Simplified Cometary Concentration Model (SCCM) to simulate the evaporation and concentration pro…
The coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko has been probed by the Rosetta spacecraft and shows a variety of different molecules. The ROSINA COmet Pressure Sensor and the Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer provide in-situ densities for many volatile compounds including the 14 gas species H2O, CO2, CO, H2S, O2, C2H6, CH3OH, H2CO, CH4, NH3, HCN, C2H5OH, OCS, and CS2. We fit the observed densities during the entire comet mission between August 2014 and September 2016 to an inverse coma model. We retrieve surface emissions on a cometary shape with 3996 triangular elements for 50 separated time inte…
Comets display with decreasing solar distance an increased emission of gas and dust particles, leading to the formation of the coma and tail. Spacecraft missions provide insight in the temporal and spatial variations of the dust and gas sources located on the cometary nucleus. For the case of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P/C-G), the long-term observations from the Rosetta mission point to a homogeneous dust emission across the entire illuminated surface. Despite the homogeneous initial distribution, a collimation in jet-like structures becomes visible. We propose that this observation is…
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a Jupiter-family comet that was the target of the Rosetta mission, the first mission to successfully orbit and land a probe on a comet. This mission was accompanied by a large ground-based observing campaign. We have developed a pipeline to calibrate and measure photometry of comet 67P during its 2016 perihelion passage, making use of all visible wavelength broadband imaging collected across a wide range of facilities. The pipeline calibrates the brightness of the comet to a common photometric system (Pan-STARRS 1) using background stars within the field allowing f…
The first 1000 km of the ion tail of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko were explored by the European Rosetta spacecraft, 2.7 au away from the Sun. We characterised the dynamics of both the solar wind and the cometary ions on the night-side of the comet's atmosphere. We analysed in situ ion and magnetic field measurements and compared the data to a semi-analytical model. The cometary ions are observed flowing close to radially away from the nucleus during the entire excursion. The solar wind is deflected by its interaction with the new-born cometary ions. Two concentric regions appear, an inner r…
We study the dynamics of the interaction between the solar wind ions and a partially ionized atmosphere around a comet, at a distance of 2.88 AU from the sun during a period of low nucleus activity. Comparing particle data and mag- netic field data for a case study, we highlight the prime role of the solar wind electric field in the cometary ion dynamics. Cometary ion and solar wind proton flow directions evolve in a correlated manner, as expected from the theory of mass loading. We find that the main component of the acceler- ated cometary ion flow direction is along the anti-sunward directio…
The Cometary Secondary Ion Mass Analyzer (COSIMA) onboard ESA's Rosetta orbiter has revealed that dust particles in the coma of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko are aggregates of small grains. We study the morphological, elastic, and electric properties of dust aggregates in the coma of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko using optical microscopic images taken by the COSIMA instrument. Dust aggregates in COSIMA images are well represented as fractals in harmony with morphological data from MIDAS (Micro-Imaging Dust Analysis System) and GIADA (Grain Impact Analyzer and Dust Accumulator) onboard Rose…
In this work we aim to characterise the dust motion in the inner coma of comet 67P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko to provide constraints for theoretical 3D coma models. The OSIRIS camera onboard the Rosetta mission was able for the first time to acquire images of single dust particles from inside the cometary coma, very close to the nucleus. We analyse a large number of particles, performing a significant statistic of their behaviour during the post perihelion period, when the spacecraft covered distances from the nucleus ranging between 80 and 400 km. We describe the particle trajectories, investigat…
We here study the level of albedo variegation on the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This is done by fitting the parameters of a standard photometric phase function model to disk-average radiance factor data in images acquired by the Rosetta/OSIRIS Narrow Angle Camera in the orange filter. Local discrepancies between the observed radiance factor and the disk-average solution are interpreted as a proxy W of the local single-scattering albedo. We find a wide range 0.02<W<0.09 around an average of W=0.055. The observed albedo variegation is strongly correlated with nucleus morphology …
(Context) The change of the rotation period and the orientation of the rotation axis of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P/C-G) is deducible from images taken by the scientific imaging instruments on-board the Rosetta mission with high precision. Non gravitational forces are a natural explanation for these data. (Aims) We describe observed changes for the orientation of the rotation axis and the rotation period of 67P/C-G. For these changes we give an explanation based on a sublimation model with a best-fit for the surface active fraction (model P). Torque effects of periodically changing ga…
Following our previous detection of ubiquitous H2O and O2 absorption against the far-UV continuum of stars located near the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, we present a serendipitously observed stellar occultation that occurred on 2015 September 13, approximately one month after the comet's perihelion passage. The occultation appears in two consecutive 10-minute spectral images obtained by Alice, Rosetta's ultraviolet (700-2100 A) spectrograph, both of which show H2O absorption with column density $>10^{17.5} \mathrm{cm}^{-2}$ and significant O2 absorption ($\mathrm{O2/H2O} \approx…
Context. The first long-term in-situ observation of the plasma environment in the vicinity of a comet, as provided by the European Rosetta spacecraft. Aims. Here we offer characterisation of the solar wind flow near 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P) and its long term evolution during low nucleus activity. We also aim to quantify and interpret the deflection and deceleration of the flow expected from ionization of neutral cometary particles within the undisturbed solar wind. Methods. We have analysed in situ ion and magnetic field data and combined this with hybrid modeling of the interaction bet…
We present a method to analyze images of the coma of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko obtained using OSIRIS, the main imaging system onboard \textit{Rosetta}, where dust aggregates can be seen as bright tracks because of their relative velocity with respect to the spacecraft. We applied this method to 105 images taken in 2015 July, 2015 December and 2016 January, identifying more than 20000 individual objects. We performed a photometric analysis of them, finding their phase function. This phase function follows the same trend as the one found for the nucleus, consistent with the detected particles ha…
The Alice far-ultraviolet imaging spectrograph onboard Rosetta observed emissions from atomic and molecular species from within the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during the entire escort phase of the mission from 2014 August to 2016 September. The initial observations showed that emissions of atomic hydrogen and oxygen close to the surface were produced by energetic electron impact dissociation of H2O. Following delivery of the lander, Philae, on 2014 November 12, the trajectory of Rosetta shifted to near-terminator orbits that allowed for these emissions to be observed against the s…
The ratios of the three stable oxygen isotopes 16O, 17O and 18O on Earth and, as far as we know in the solar system, show variations on the order of a few percent at most, with a few outliers in meteorites. However, in the interstellar medium there are some highly fractionated oxygen isotopic ratios in some specific molecules. The goal of this work is to investigate the oxygen isotopic ratios in different volatile molecules found in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and compare them with findings from interstellar clouds in order to assess commonalities and differences. To accomplish…
Alice ultraviolet spectrometer onboard Rosetta space mission observed several spectroscopic emissions emanated from volatile species of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (hear after 67P/C-G) during its entire escorting phase. We have developed a photochemical model for comet 67P/C-G to study the atomic hydrogen (HI 1216, 1025, & 973 Ang), oxygen (OI 1152, 1304, & 1356 Ang), and carbon (CI 1561 & 1657 Ang) line emissions by accounting for major production pathways. The developed model has been used to calculate the emission intensities of these lines as a function of nucleocentric projected dista…
We analysed layering-related linear features on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P) to determine the internal configuration of the layerings within the nucleus. We used high-resolution images from the OSIRIS Narrow Angle Camera onboard the Rosetta spacecraft, projected onto the SHAP7 shape model of the nucleus, to map 171 layering-related linear features which we believe to represent terrace margins and strata heads. From these curved lineaments, extending laterally to up to 1925 m, we extrapolated the subsurface layering planes and their normals. We furthermore fitted the lin…
Rapid temperature changes and the early activity on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
彗星67 P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko的所谓“早期活动”被观察到主要起源于其两个叶之间的凹区或“颈部”。由于活动是由挥发物的升华驱动的，因此这是一个令人困惑的结果，因为该区域暴露在太阳下的时间较少，因此预计平均温度会更低（Sierks等人。2015）。我们使用了一个热物理模型，考虑到热惯性，全球自热，阴影，计算地面温度的彗星。我们发现，对于2014年8月至12月期间的每次旋转，颈部区域的某些部分经历了彗星表面最快的温度变化，因为它们被周围的地形所遮蔽。我们的工作表明，这些快速的温度变化与彗星的早期活动有关，我们提出了这样的假设，即由于这些快速的温度变化，与热裂纹有关的侵蚀在颈部区域以很高的速度运行。这可以解释为什么颈部含有一些冰-与表面的大多数其他部分相反（Capaccioni et al. 2015）-以及为什么它是彗星早期活动的主要来源（Sierks et al. 2015）。在更广泛的背景下，这些结果表明，热裂解可以在具有显著凹陷的无大气物体上比目前可用的估计值更快地进行（Delbo等人，2014年）。
The Alice far-UV imaging spectrograph (700-2050 A) acquired over 70,000 spectral images during Rosetta's 2-year escort mission, including over 20,000 in the months surrounding perihelion when the comet activity level was highest. We have developed automated software to fit and remove ubiquitous H, O, C, S, and CO emissions from Alice spectra, along with reflected solar continuum and absorption from gaseous H2O in the comet's coma, which we apply to a "grand sum" of integrations taken near perihelion. We present upper limits on the presence of one ion and 17 neutral atomic species for this time…
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
Results. We found that gas-phase silicon was present throughout the Rosetta mission. Furthermore, the presence of sodium and iron atoms near the comet's perihelion confirms that sputtering cannot be the sole release process for refractory elements into the gas phase. Nickel was found to be below the detection limit. The search for parent species of any of the identified gas phase refractories has not been successful. Upper limits for a suite of possible fragment species (SiH, SiC, NaH, etc.) of larger parent and daughter species have been obtained. Furthermore, Si did not exhibit the same drop…
Cometary outbursts offer a valuable window into the composition of comet nuclei with their forceful ejection of dust and volatiles in explosive events, revealing the interior components of the comet. Understanding how different types of outbursts influence the dust properties and volatile abundances to better interpret what signatures can be attributed to primordial composition and what features are the result of processing is an important task best undertaken with a multi-instrument approach. The European Space Agency \textit{Rosetta} mission to 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko carried a suite of in…
Observations of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko were performed with MUSE at large heliocentric distances post-perihelion, between March 3 and 7, 2016. Those observations were part of a simultaneous ground-based campaign aimed at providing large-scale information about comet 67P that complement the ESA/Rosetta mission. We obtained a total of 38 datacubes over 5 nights. We take advantage of the integral field unit (IFU) nature of the instrument to study simultaneously the spectrum of 67P's dust and its spatial distribution in the coma. We also look for evidence of gas emission in the coma. We pr…
