Instrument Rosetty COSIMA (Analizator komet Secondary Ion Mass) wykrył materię organiczną w cząstkach pyłu emitowanych przez kometę 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Było to możliwe dzięki małej prędkości sondy obiegającej kometę.
While organics had already been detected in situ on the comet's surface by instruments on-boardPhilae and from orbit by Rosetta's ROSINA, those were both in the form of gases resulting from the sublimation of ices. By contrast, COSIMA has made its detections in solid dust.
Their presence was only ever hinted at in previous comet missions, which flew by their targets at high speed and, as a result, disrupted the particles, making characterisation challenging. But Rosetta is orbiting Comet 67P/C-G and can catch dust particles moving at low speed.
"Our analysis reveals carbon in a far more complex form than expected," remarked Hervé Cottin, one of the authors of the paper reporting the result that is published in Nature today. "It is so complex, we can't give it a proper formula or a name!"
The organic signatures of seven particles are presented in the paper, which the COSIMA team say are representative of the two hundred plus grains analysed so far. (…)
"Although we cannot know if the organics seen in these dust particles were created in the interstellar medium before the protoplanetary nebula came together, or in the protoplanetary disk during early Solar System formation, COSIMA's dust grains are certainly witnesses to early formation processes, including that of the comet itself," says Nicolas Fray, first author of the paper.
"These particles have remained pristine and untouched for billions of years until they were released in the days or weeks before being 'caught' by COSIMA," adds Martin Hilchenbach, principal investigator of COSIMA. "The results add to the growing picture that Comet 67P/C-G contains some of the most primitive material from our Solar System's early history."
http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/58233-rosetta-catches-dusty-organics/
Wątek: Rosetta (Przeczytany 153297 razy)