Composition of comet Halley dust particles from Vega observations
Abstract
The dust impact mass analyser (PUMA) carried by the spacecraft Vega 1 and Vega 2 has provided the first direct measurements of the physical and chemical properties of cometary dust. Particles of mass <10-14 g are much more abundant than was predicted by models1. Most of the particles are rich in light elements such as H, C, N and O, lending support to models that describe cometary material as consisting of radiation-processed ices. Three examples of mass spectra for typical particle compositions are shown.
- Publication:
-
Nature
- Pub Date:
- May 1986
- DOI:
- 10.1038/321280a0
- Bibcode:
- 1986Natur.321..280K
- Keywords:
-
- Cosmic Dust;
- Cosmochemistry;
- Halley'S Comet;
- Mass Spectroscopy;
- Vega Project;
- Particle Size Distribution;
- Astrophysics; Comets;
- COMETS;
- HALLEY;
- SPACECRAFT OBSERVATIONS;
- MISSION DESCRIPTION;
- EXPERIMENTS;
- COMPOSITION;
- DUST;
- PARTICLES;
- VEGA 1;
- VEGA 2;
- DUST IMPACT MASS ANALYSER;
- PUMA;
- PHYSICAL PROPERTIES;
- CHEMISTRY;
- ABUNDANCE;
- SPECTRA;
- EQUIPMENT;
- PROCEDURE;
- CLASSIFICATION;
- ANALYSIS;
- COMPARISONS