67P/C-G inner coma dust properties from 2.2 au inbound to 2.0 au outbound to the Sun
Date Issued
2016
Author(s)
•
•
•
•
Green, S. F.
•
Rietmeijer, F. J. M.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Weissman, P.
•
Gruen, E.
•
Lopez-Moreno, J. J.
•
Rodriguez, J.
•
Bussoletti, E.
•
Crifo, J. F.
•
•
Lamy, P. L.
•
McDonnell, J. A. M.
•
•
Molina, A.
•
Morales, R.
•
Moreno, F.
•
•
Perrin, J. M.
•
Rodrigo, R.
•
Zarnecki, J. C.
•
Cosi, M.
•
Giovane, F.
•
Gustafson, B.
•
Ortiz, J. L.
•
Jeronimo, J. M.
•
Leese, M. R.
•
Herranz, M.
•
Liuzzi, V.
•
Lopez-Jimenez, A. C.
Abstract
GIADA (Grain Impact Analyzer and Dust Accumulator) on-board the Rosetta space probe is designed to measure the momentum, mass and speed of individual dust particles escaping the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (hereafter 67P). From 2014 August to 2016 June, Rosetta escorted comet 67P during its journey around the Sun. Here, we focus on GIADA data taken between 2015 January and 2016 February which included 67P's perihelion passage. To better understand cometary activity and more specifically the presence of dust structures in cometary comae, we mapped the spatial distribution of dust density in 67P's coma. In this manner, we could track the evolution of high-density regions of coma dust and their connections with nucleus illumination conditions, namely tracking 67P's seasons. We also studied the link between dust particle speeds and their masses with respect to heliocentric distance, I.e. the level of cometary activity. This allowed us to derive a global and a local correlation of the dust particles' speed distribution with respect to the H2O production rate.
Volume
462
Start page
S210
Issn Identifier
0035-8711
Ads BibCode
2016MNRAS.462S.210D
Rights
open.access
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
della_corte_et_al_2016.pdf
Description
PDF editoriale
Size
2.87 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
cded18dfe08b0428e4553b6129701eb3