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Wake up, Rosetta!
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Rosetta has detected oxygen molecules outgassing from a comet, a surprising observation that suggests they were incorporated into the comet during its formation.
Radiolysis of icy dust grains could have taken place prior to the comet’s accretion into a larger body. In this case, the O2 would remain trapped in the voids of the water ice on the grains while the hydrogen diffused out, preventing the reformation of O2 to water, and resulting in an increased and stable level of O2 in the solid ice.
Regardless of how it was made, the O2 was also somehow protected during the accretion stage of the comet: this must have happened gently to avoid the O2 being destroyed by further chemical reactions.
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67P'S UNIQUE WATER CYCLE
The amount of water ice on the surface of comet comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko regularly changes.
Ice appears to accumulate when parts of the comet are in shadow before being vapourised when the surface comes into the sunlight.
The comet spins once every 12 hours, meaning different parts of its surface come into shade and sunlight regularly.
The animation above shows comet 67P coming into focus as the Rosetta space probe closed in (credit: ESA)
This results in changes in temperature on the surface that drive the movement of water from deep inside the comet towards the surface.
During the comet's 'night' this vapour freezes into ice only be be vapourised again when the sun rises on the surface once more.
The researchers behind the study stay the daily cycle of ice formation and melting may be an important process on all comets in our solar system.
The amount of water ice on the surface of comet comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko regularly changes.
Ice appears to accumulate when parts of the comet are in shadow before being vapourised when the surface comes into the sunlight.
The comet spins once every 12 hours, meaning different parts of its surface come into shade and sunlight regularly.
The animation above shows comet 67P coming into focus as the Rosetta space probe closed in (credit: ESA)
This results in changes in temperature on the surface that drive the movement of water from deep inside the comet towards the surface.
During the comet's 'night' this vapour freezes into ice only be be vapourised again when the sun rises on the surface once more.
The researchers behind the study stay the daily cycle of ice formation and melting may be an important process on all comets in our solar system.
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A 200-m complex fracture system in the Aker region, on the comet large lobe.
These two images show two fractured boulders found in the Imhotep (left) and Atum (right) regions, respectively. Fracturing in the Imhotep boulder is so pervasive it has led to fragmentation of the 60 m-wide boulder.
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Rosetta probe to 'crash land' on comet at end of its mission.
The Rosetta probe (illustrated) may be sent crashing into comet 67P at the end of its lifetime next September. But it will not smash into the duck-shaped comet 67P in an uncontrolled way, but instead approach it slowly to send as much information back to Earth as possible in its dying moments
The spacecraft will make a softer touch down on 67P than its ill-fated Philae lander it will approach the comet slowly, beaming back as much information as possible to scientists on Earth in its dying moments.
Experts say the orbiter's final moments may ultimately provide more data and clearer pictures than were possible with the Philae lander.
The fate of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta has been discussed for over a year and is yet to be completely decided, with a possibility remaining that the spacecraft could land on the comet's surface to hibernate.
Rosetta project scientist Matt Taylor said: 'The crash landing gives us the best scientific end-of-mission that we can hope for.'
But such a destructive end will be emotional for scientists, some of whom have worked on the mission since it began in 2003, Nature.com reported.
'There will be a lot of tears,' Taylor said.
He has previously told Space Exploration Network: 'I feel from a "personal" perspective, there is something rather fitting in putting Rosetta down on the surface, re-uniting it with Philae.'
The favoured plan for ending the mission is to crash the craft very slowly into the comet.
Rosetta has more powerful sensors on board than Philae, so a slow descent would mean it could gather more data and better pictures of the comet's surface.
Once it gets within two-and-a-half miles (4km) for example, it could distinguish between gases emerging from two lobes of the comet to shed light on how the rocky body varies in its composition.
Mission manager Patrick Martin said current plans would see Rosetta spiral down to five miles (8km) of 67P's surface in August – the closest it's come so far – before gradually getting closer as it orbits the comet and finally crashing gently a month later.
Flight director Andrea Accomazzo has previously said that it would be ideal if Rosetta could land and hibernate on the comet, waiting to approach the sun in four or five years' time.
However, he said the cold of deep space would probably damage the craft in that time, and it wouldn't have enough fuel to function.
A crash landing would be more complicated than it seems.
In order to send images and data back to Earth, engineers would have to design the craft's final descent in a way that it crash lands on the comet's Earth-facing side.
Because 67P is an irregular shape, navigating close to its surface will be difficult too.
Spacecraft-operations manager Sylvain Lodiot said that once Rosetta has crashed on the comet – no matter how soft the landing – there will be no way to point its antenna towards Earth and for scientists to communicate with it, or for it to angle its solar array to harvest power from the sun's rays.
'Once we touch, hit or crash, whatever you want to call it, it's game over,' he said.
Nasa recently performed a similar manoeuvre with its Messenger spacecraft, which was sent crashing into the surface of Mercury on 30 April 2015.
And on 4 July 2005, Nasa's Deep Impact spacecraft launched an impactor into the surface of the comet Tempel 1 and observed the results.
Impacting the surface would not be unprecedented. On 30 April 2015, Nasa sent the Messenger spacecraft (illustrated left) slamming into the surface of Mercury. Previously, on 12 February 2001, Nasa’s Near Shoemaker spacecraft (illustrated right) touched down on the comet Eros
The Rosetta probe (illustrated) may be sent crashing into comet 67P at the end of its lifetime next September. But it will not smash into the duck-shaped comet 67P in an uncontrolled way, but instead approach it slowly to send as much information back to Earth as possible in its dying moments
The spacecraft will make a softer touch down on 67P than its ill-fated Philae lander it will approach the comet slowly, beaming back as much information as possible to scientists on Earth in its dying moments.
Experts say the orbiter's final moments may ultimately provide more data and clearer pictures than were possible with the Philae lander.
The fate of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta has been discussed for over a year and is yet to be completely decided, with a possibility remaining that the spacecraft could land on the comet's surface to hibernate.
Rosetta project scientist Matt Taylor said: 'The crash landing gives us the best scientific end-of-mission that we can hope for.'
But such a destructive end will be emotional for scientists, some of whom have worked on the mission since it began in 2003, Nature.com reported.
'There will be a lot of tears,' Taylor said.
He has previously told Space Exploration Network: 'I feel from a "personal" perspective, there is something rather fitting in putting Rosetta down on the surface, re-uniting it with Philae.'
The favoured plan for ending the mission is to crash the craft very slowly into the comet.
Rosetta has more powerful sensors on board than Philae, so a slow descent would mean it could gather more data and better pictures of the comet's surface.
Once it gets within two-and-a-half miles (4km) for example, it could distinguish between gases emerging from two lobes of the comet to shed light on how the rocky body varies in its composition.
Mission manager Patrick Martin said current plans would see Rosetta spiral down to five miles (8km) of 67P's surface in August – the closest it's come so far – before gradually getting closer as it orbits the comet and finally crashing gently a month later.
Flight director Andrea Accomazzo has previously said that it would be ideal if Rosetta could land and hibernate on the comet, waiting to approach the sun in four or five years' time.
However, he said the cold of deep space would probably damage the craft in that time, and it wouldn't have enough fuel to function.
A crash landing would be more complicated than it seems.
In order to send images and data back to Earth, engineers would have to design the craft's final descent in a way that it crash lands on the comet's Earth-facing side.
Because 67P is an irregular shape, navigating close to its surface will be difficult too.
Spacecraft-operations manager Sylvain Lodiot said that once Rosetta has crashed on the comet – no matter how soft the landing – there will be no way to point its antenna towards Earth and for scientists to communicate with it, or for it to angle its solar array to harvest power from the sun's rays.
'Once we touch, hit or crash, whatever you want to call it, it's game over,' he said.
Nasa recently performed a similar manoeuvre with its Messenger spacecraft, which was sent crashing into the surface of Mercury on 30 April 2015.
And on 4 July 2005, Nasa's Deep Impact spacecraft launched an impactor into the surface of the comet Tempel 1 and observed the results.
Impacting the surface would not be unprecedented. On 30 April 2015, Nasa sent the Messenger spacecraft (illustrated left) slamming into the surface of Mercury. Previously, on 12 February 2001, Nasa’s Near Shoemaker spacecraft (illustrated right) touched down on the comet Eros
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Epic, what a shot, just above The Abominable Snowmans' head.
Thats where hes been hiding.
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The study of comet 67P/C-G reveals a dramatic surface environment where considerable amounts of material – up to 1000 kg per second – are ejected from the comet. Not all of this makes it into space, instead some falls back to coat the nucleus.
Small, solid particles – typically with sizes ranging from micrometers to tens of centimeters – are ejected when icy material sublimes. The smallest of these expelled dust grains – mm-sized or smaller – obtain sufficient velocity to escape the influence of the comet and become part of the comet's tail, which can stretch for millions of kilometers through space.
But some of the larger particles (cm-sized or greater) fall back, meaning that particles from one part of the comet can descend to the surface on another part of the comet's double-lobed nucleus. This ‘airfall’ creates smooth plains that can be as much as a few meters thick.
Ripples in the Hapi (neck) region are attributed to a phenomenon known as airfall.
There are also boulders scattered across the dramatic landscape. Scientists have identified 3546 boulders larger than 7 m in size.
Large, fractured boulders in the Imhotep region, surrounded by material that appears to have split from the boulders.
Boulders are not uniformly distributed across the comet. On the smaller lobe, often dubbed the head, there are more smaller boulders than on the larger lobe, called the body. In particular, the size distributions are related to how fractured the formation area is. Thermal stress causes fractures on the surface, which can dislodge blocks - forming new boulders - and there is also a continuous fragmentation of boulders that have already been formed. By examining the frequency with which boulders > 7 m are found on the head, the neck and the body of the comet, the team shows that the head is more fractured than the body: the size-distribution for the head is steeper than that of the body.
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Researchers reconstruct the lander's flight across a comet in stunning new video a year after touchdown
During the journey, Philae made three touchdowns and a collision, and scientists have constructed a numerical simulation of the lander after taking test data from a mock-up version, along with free-flight and bounce dynamics, according to a blog from the European Space Agency. <<<< VID in that link.
One year ago, Rosetta's Philae lander touched down upon a comet on a site now known as Agilkia. In the subsequent hours, the lander separated from its site and began a seven-hour descent, followed by a two-hour journey across the surface of the comet, bringing it to its new location, Abydos.
Images from the landing show precisely the location and position at which Philae touched down on the comet. The images coincide with surface measurements that detect when the Philae's three feet touched down.
These, among other calculations, have given scientists an accurate visualization of the lander's fate this past year. 'This animation and the data it relies upon is providing the basis of the still on-going discussion about Philae's fate on the comet,' said Philip Heinisch from TU Braunschweig.
After its first touchdown, Philae's stabilizing flywheel was turned off causing the lander to spin and collide with a crater. 'The lander then tumbled, but it was eventually able to pick itself back up onto its legs at its final resting location at Abydos
'The subsequent contact of the tumbling Philae with the surface and the second touchdown was the most critical one.
The lander made contact with the surface and Philae left the comet again, controlled by the two legs to the left and to the right of the balcony and performed a final rotation, a backward roll, about the lander Y-axis,' says Hans-Ulrich Auster of TU Braunschweig.
Researchers also say all three legs are touching the ground.
One thing is certain – at the final landing site, Philae has not ended up with one leg sticking up in the air.
'The SESAME instrument, which has sensors fitted in all three of the lander's feet, allowed us to listen in on MUPUS attempting to hammer its penetrator into the comet – and we detected signals in each of the legs,' explains DLR planetary researcher Martin Knapmeyer.
During the journey, Philae made three touchdowns and a collision, and scientists have constructed a numerical simulation of the lander after taking test data from a mock-up version, along with free-flight and bounce dynamics, according to a blog from the European Space Agency. <<<< VID in that link.
One year ago, Rosetta's Philae lander touched down upon a comet on a site now known as Agilkia. In the subsequent hours, the lander separated from its site and began a seven-hour descent, followed by a two-hour journey across the surface of the comet, bringing it to its new location, Abydos.
Images from the landing show precisely the location and position at which Philae touched down on the comet. The images coincide with surface measurements that detect when the Philae's three feet touched down.
These, among other calculations, have given scientists an accurate visualization of the lander's fate this past year. 'This animation and the data it relies upon is providing the basis of the still on-going discussion about Philae's fate on the comet,' said Philip Heinisch from TU Braunschweig.
After its first touchdown, Philae's stabilizing flywheel was turned off causing the lander to spin and collide with a crater. 'The lander then tumbled, but it was eventually able to pick itself back up onto its legs at its final resting location at Abydos
'The subsequent contact of the tumbling Philae with the surface and the second touchdown was the most critical one.
The lander made contact with the surface and Philae left the comet again, controlled by the two legs to the left and to the right of the balcony and performed a final rotation, a backward roll, about the lander Y-axis,' says Hans-Ulrich Auster of TU Braunschweig.
Researchers also say all three legs are touching the ground.
One thing is certain – at the final landing site, Philae has not ended up with one leg sticking up in the air.
'The SESAME instrument, which has sensors fitted in all three of the lander's feet, allowed us to listen in on MUPUS attempting to hammer its penetrator into the comet – and we detected signals in each of the legs,' explains DLR planetary researcher Martin Knapmeyer.
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In this new NAVCAM view, Comet 67P small lobe and its distinctive Hatmehit depression face directly towards Rosetta
The relatively flat Aker surface can be identified to the right in this image, with Khepry to the top and Anhur towards the foreground. Sobek (center) marks the transition towards the small lobe (left) where distinctive fracture patterns are clearly seen in Wosret (far left).
The OSIRIS team also released a striking new view focusing on the Khonsu region this week, at the boundary with Atum and Anubis. A variety of fracture-like features and layers are clearly visible. For example, zooming in close to the center of the image reveals parallel sets of fracture lines that cross perpendicular to each other. On Earth and Mars this is often an indicator of ice that has contracted below the surface.
See more here
The relatively flat Aker surface can be identified to the right in this image, with Khepry to the top and Anhur towards the foreground. Sobek (center) marks the transition towards the small lobe (left) where distinctive fracture patterns are clearly seen in Wosret (far left).
The OSIRIS team also released a striking new view focusing on the Khonsu region this week, at the boundary with Atum and Anubis. A variety of fracture-like features and layers are clearly visible. For example, zooming in close to the center of the image reveals parallel sets of fracture lines that cross perpendicular to each other. On Earth and Mars this is often an indicator of ice that has contracted below the surface.
See more here
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There are no large caverns inside Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. ESA’s Rosetta mission has made measurements that clearly demonstrate this, solving a long-standing mystery.
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a low-density highly porous object. This result is consistent with earlier results from Rosetta's CONSERT radar experiment showing that the double-lobed comet's 'head' is fairly homogenous on spatial scales of a few tens of meters.
Comet 67P's mass is slightly < 10 billion tonnes. Images from the OSIRIS camera have been used to develop models of the comet's shape and these give the volume as ~ 18.7 km^3, meaning that the density is 533 kg*m^-3.
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a low-density highly porous object. This result is consistent with earlier results from Rosetta's CONSERT radar experiment showing that the double-lobed comet's 'head' is fairly homogenous on spatial scales of a few tens of meters.
Comet 67P's mass is slightly < 10 billion tonnes. Images from the OSIRIS camera have been used to develop models of the comet's shape and these give the volume as ~ 18.7 km^3, meaning that the density is 533 kg*m^-3.
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Mission scientists have decided to give up trying to contact the comet lander Philae.
The German Aerospace Center (DLR), which led the consortium behind Philae, said the lander is probably now covered in dust and too cold to function.
"Unfortunately, the probability of Philae re-establishing contact with our team at the DLR Lander Control Center is almost zero, and we will no longer be sending any commands," said Stephan Ulamec, the lander's project manager at DLR.
On several occasions, attempts to contact Philae - via the Rosetta spacecraft, still orbiting Comet 67P - did receive a response.
But the last such contact was on July 9 2015 and the comet is now hurtling into the much colder part of its orbit, plunging to temperatures below -180C at which the lander was never designed to operate.
Ultra-low temperatures in the shade on Comet 67P have likely buckled and snapped some of Philae's components. While many of the lander's parts were designed for this harsh environment, there were certain electronics kept in a "warm box" that have now unquestionably been pushed beyond their "qualified" limits - including the onboard computer and the communications unit.
Rosetta has imaged the little robot's presumed position before from inside a distance of 20km and seen nothing convincing.
To go even closer, for better resolution images, takes the probe into a region where the lumpy gravitational field of the irregular-shaped comet becomes hard to navigate. And that is a risk controllers really don't need to take.
Rosetta and its ongoing science observations at 67P really are the priority. The very best of this science may be acquired in September when the spacecraft spirals down to try to make its own "landing" on the comet.
The German Aerospace Center (DLR), which led the consortium behind Philae, said the lander is probably now covered in dust and too cold to function.
"Unfortunately, the probability of Philae re-establishing contact with our team at the DLR Lander Control Center is almost zero, and we will no longer be sending any commands," said Stephan Ulamec, the lander's project manager at DLR.
On several occasions, attempts to contact Philae - via the Rosetta spacecraft, still orbiting Comet 67P - did receive a response.
But the last such contact was on July 9 2015 and the comet is now hurtling into the much colder part of its orbit, plunging to temperatures below -180C at which the lander was never designed to operate.
Ultra-low temperatures in the shade on Comet 67P have likely buckled and snapped some of Philae's components. While many of the lander's parts were designed for this harsh environment, there were certain electronics kept in a "warm box" that have now unquestionably been pushed beyond their "qualified" limits - including the onboard computer and the communications unit.
Rosetta has imaged the little robot's presumed position before from inside a distance of 20km and seen nothing convincing.
To go even closer, for better resolution images, takes the probe into a region where the lumpy gravitational field of the irregular-shaped comet becomes hard to navigate. And that is a risk controllers really don't need to take.
Rosetta and its ongoing science observations at 67P really are the priority. The very best of this science may be acquired in September when the spacecraft spirals down to try to make its own "landing" on the comet.
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New image:
And yeah Philae is a lost cause:
Initially, Philae was seen to rotate slowly during the descent to Agilkia. It landed and then bounced, rotating significantly faster as the momentum of the internal flywheel was transferred to the lander. It collided with a cliff 45 minutes later, then tumbled, flying above the surface for more than an hour longer, before bouncing once again and coming to a stop a few meters away, a few minutes later.
See all technical details here
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Rosetta_s_lander_faces_eternal_hibernation
And yeah Philae is a lost cause:
Initially, Philae was seen to rotate slowly during the descent to Agilkia. It landed and then bounced, rotating significantly faster as the momentum of the internal flywheel was transferred to the lander. It collided with a cliff 45 minutes later, then tumbled, flying above the surface for more than an hour longer, before bouncing once again and coming to a stop a few meters away, a few minutes later.
See all technical details here
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Rosetta_s_lander_faces_eternal_hibernation
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Inb4 the first universal OC attempt in space. Seems like ideal conditions for a really beefy overclock
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Single frame enhanced NavCam image taken on 22 February 2016, when Rosetta was 32.5 km from the nucleus of Comet 67P. The scale is 2.8 m/pixel and the image measures 2.8 km across.
Doh, it's unbelievable. That thing looks different, any slightest change in the angle of view makes it unrecognizable.
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Rosetta's COSIMA [Cometary Secondary Ion Mass Analyser] has detected tens of thousands of dust grains since arriving at Comet 67P.
The grains collected from 11 August 2014 - 3 April 2015 across nine 1 cm^2 targets, when the comet was moving towards the Sun along its orbit from ~ 3.5 - 2 AU.
Diversity of particles (lol who on Earth names dust particles anyway?!) seen on a small area:
The grains collected from 11 August 2014 - 3 April 2015 across nine 1 cm^2 targets, when the comet was moving towards the Sun along its orbit from ~ 3.5 - 2 AU.
Diversity of particles (lol who on Earth names dust particles anyway?!) seen on a small area:
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A study published by an international team reveals the comet is as old as the solar system itself, as is the ice buried inside it.
This ice has now settled a longstanding debate over the nature of ice in comets, and has helped uncover secrets of when comets were first formed.
The data used to identify the ice was gathered by Rosetta's Rosina instrument – a mass spectrometer that measured the amounts of nitrogen, carbon monoxide and argon in the comet's ice.
http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov/news/rosina-tastes-comet’s-gases
The results were compared with data from labs that looked for amorphous ice, and models describing the composition of ice that can trap molecules of gas.
The ratios of molecular nitrogen and argon found in Churi correspond to those in the gas hydrate model, while the amount of argon detected in Churi is a hundred times smaller than the quantity that can be trapped in amorphous ice.
The ice in the comet, therefore, definitely has a crystalline structure.
Until now, there were two opposing hypotheses. One was that the ice is crystalline and the water molecules are arranged in a regular pattern, and the other that the ice is amorphous, with disordered molecules.
This question is important because of its implications for the origin and formation of comets and the solar system.
Gas hydrates are made of crystalline ice that formed in the protosolar nebula, which gave rise to the early solar system, from the crystallisation of grains of water ice and the adsorption of gas molecules onto their surfaces as the nebula slowly cooled.
The finding means scientists can now determine the age of comets.
In particular, the crystalline structure means it was formed in the potosolar nebula, a cloud of dust that gathered before the solar system formed.
This makes the ice as old as our solar system, around 4.6 billion years old.
The gas hydrates agglomerated by Churi must have formed between -228 °C and -223 °C to produce the observed abundances.
The discovery was made by an international team led by researchers at the centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) and Marseille University.
The work has been published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
If comets are made of crystalline ice, this means that they must have formed at the same time as the solar system, rather than earlier in the interstellar medium.
The crystalline structure of comets also shows that the protosolar nebula was hot and dense enough to turn ice from the interstellar medium into gas.
This work also supports currently believed scenarios for the formation of the gas giant planets, as well as their moons, which require the agglomeration of crystalline ice.
This ice has now settled a longstanding debate over the nature of ice in comets, and has helped uncover secrets of when comets were first formed.
The data used to identify the ice was gathered by Rosetta's Rosina instrument – a mass spectrometer that measured the amounts of nitrogen, carbon monoxide and argon in the comet's ice.
http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov/news/rosina-tastes-comet’s-gases
The results were compared with data from labs that looked for amorphous ice, and models describing the composition of ice that can trap molecules of gas.
The ratios of molecular nitrogen and argon found in Churi correspond to those in the gas hydrate model, while the amount of argon detected in Churi is a hundred times smaller than the quantity that can be trapped in amorphous ice.
The ice in the comet, therefore, definitely has a crystalline structure.
Until now, there were two opposing hypotheses. One was that the ice is crystalline and the water molecules are arranged in a regular pattern, and the other that the ice is amorphous, with disordered molecules.
This question is important because of its implications for the origin and formation of comets and the solar system.
Gas hydrates are made of crystalline ice that formed in the protosolar nebula, which gave rise to the early solar system, from the crystallisation of grains of water ice and the adsorption of gas molecules onto their surfaces as the nebula slowly cooled.
The finding means scientists can now determine the age of comets.
In particular, the crystalline structure means it was formed in the potosolar nebula, a cloud of dust that gathered before the solar system formed.
This makes the ice as old as our solar system, around 4.6 billion years old.
The gas hydrates agglomerated by Churi must have formed between -228 °C and -223 °C to produce the observed abundances.
The discovery was made by an international team led by researchers at the centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) and Marseille University.
The work has been published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
If comets are made of crystalline ice, this means that they must have formed at the same time as the solar system, rather than earlier in the interstellar medium.
The crystalline structure of comets also shows that the protosolar nebula was hot and dense enough to turn ice from the interstellar medium into gas.
This work also supports currently believed scenarios for the formation of the gas giant planets, as well as their moons, which require the agglomeration of crystalline ice.
