| 1. |
- Fray, Nicolas, et al.
(författare)
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High-molecular-weight organic matter in the particles of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko
- 2016
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 538:7623, s. 72-74
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The presence of solid carbonaceous matter in cometary dust was established by the detection of elements such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen in particles from comet 1P/Halley1, 2. Such matter is generally thought to have originated in the interstellar medium3, but it might have formed in the solar nebula—the cloud of gas and dust that was left over after the Sun formed4. This solid carbonaceous material cannot be observed from Earth, so it has eluded unambiguous characterization5. Many gaseous organic molecules, however, have been observed6, 7, 8, 9; they come mostly from the sublimation of ices at the surface or in the subsurface of cometary nuclei8. These ices could have been formed from material inherited from the interstellar medium that suffered little processing in the solar nebula10. Here we report the in situ detection of solid organic matter in the dust particles emitted by comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko; the carbon in this organic material is bound in very large macromolecular compounds, analogous to the insoluble organic matter found in the carbonaceous chondrite meteorites11, 12. The organic matter in meteorites might have formed in the interstellar medium and/or the solar nebula, but was almost certainly modified in the meteorites’ parent bodies11. We conclude that the observed cometary carbonaceous solid matter could have the same origin as the meteoritic insoluble organic matter, but suffered less modification before and/or after being incorporated into the comet.
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| 2. |
- Krüger, Harald, et al.
(författare)
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COSIMA-Rosetta calibration for in situ characterization of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko cometary inorganic compounds
- 2015
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Ingår i: Planetary and Space Science. - : Elsevier. - 0032-0633 .- 1873-5088. ; 117, s. 35-44
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- COmetary Secondary Ion Mass Analyzer (COSIMA) is a time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) instrument on board the Rosetta space mission. COSIMA has been designed to measure the composition of cometary dust particles. It has a mass resolution m/Δm of 1400 at mass 100 u, thus enabling the discrimination of inorganic mass peaks from organic ones in the mass spectra. We have evaluated the identification capabilities of the reference model of COSIMA for inorganic compounds using a suite of terrestrial minerals that are relevant for cometary science. Ground calibration demonstrated that the performances of the flight model were similar to that of the reference model. The list of minerals used in this study was chosen based on the mineralogy of meteorites, interplanetary dust particles and Stardust samples. It contains anhydrous and hydrous ferromagnesian silicates, refractory silicates and oxides (present in meteoritic Ca-Al-rich inclusions), carbonates, and Fe-Ni sulfides. From the analyses of these minerals, we have calculated relative sensitivity factors for a suite of major and minor elements in order to provide a basis for element quantification for the possible identification of major mineral classes present in the cometary particles.
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| 3. |
- Schulz, Rita, et al.
(författare)
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Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko sheds dust coat accumulated over the past four years
- 2015
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 518:7538, s. 216-218
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Comets are composed of dust and frozen gases. The ices are mixed with the refractory material either as an icy conglomerate, or as an aggregate of pre-solar grains (grains that existed prior to the formation of the Solar System), mantled by an ice layer. The presence of water-ice grains in periodic comets is now well established. Modelling of infrared spectra obtained about ten kilometres from the nucleus of comet Hartley 2 suggests that larger dust particles are being physically decoupled from fine-grained water-ice particles that may be aggregates, which supports the icy-conglomerate model. It is known that comets build up crusts of dust that are subsequently shed as they approach perihelion. Micrometre-sized interplanetary dust particles collected in the Earth's stratosphere and certain micrometeorites are assumed to be of cometary origin. Here we report that grains collected from the Jupiter-family comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko come from a dusty crust that quenches the material outflow activity at the comet surface. The larger grains (exceeding 50 micrometres across) are fluffy (with porosity over 50 per cent), and many shattered when collected on the target plate, suggesting that they are agglomerates of entities in the size range of interplanetary dust particles. Their surfaces are generally rich in sodium, which explains the high sodium abundance in cometary meteoroids. The particles collected to date therefore probably represent parent material of interplanetary dust particles. This argues against comet dust being composed of a silicate core mantled by organic refractory material and then by a mixture of water-dominated ices. At its previous recurrence (orbital period 6.5 years), the comet's dust production doubled when it was between 2.7 and 2.5 astronomical units from the Sun, indicating that this was when the nucleus shed its mantle. Once the mantle is shed, unprocessed material starts to supply the developing coma, radically changing its dust component, which then also contains icy grains, as detected during encounters with other comets closer to the Sun.
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| 4. |
- Zeichner, Sarah S., et al.
(författare)
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Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in samples of Ryugu formed in the interstellar medium
- 2023
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Ingår i: Science. - : AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE. - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 382:6677, s. 1411-1415
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) contain less than or similar to 20% of the carbon in the interstellar medium. They are potentially produced in circumstellar environments (at temperatures greater than or similar to 1000 kelvin), by (similar to 10 kelvin) interstellar clouds, or by processing of carbon-rich dust grains. We report isotopic properties of PAHs extracted from samples of the asteroid Ryugu and the meteorite Murchison. The doubly-C-13 substituted compositions (Delta 2x(13)C values) of the PAHs naphthalene, fluoranthene, and pyrene are 9 to 51 parts per thousand higher than values expected for a stochastic distribution of isotopes. The Delta 2x(13)C values are higher than expected if the PAHs formed in a circumstellar environment, but consistent with formation in the interstellar medium. By contrast, the PAHs phenanthrene and anthracene in Ryugu samples have Delta 2x(13)C values consistent with formation by higher-temperature reactions.
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