Detection Of Organic Compounds With COSIMA-rosetta Instrument: Application To Polyoxymethylene
Abstract
The Rosetta mission launched by ESA in March 2004 will reach the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014 to perform the most exhaustive study ever achieved on comets. A time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometer (TOF-SIMS), named COSIMA (COmetary Secondary Ion Mass Analyser), is onboard the Rosetta spacecraft. It will focus on chemical analysis of solid cometary grains collected in situ. COSIMA is one of the most promising instrument in the payload of Rosetta to identify the refractory organic molecules present on comet.
Here, we focus on the detection of a specific compound: the polyoxymethylene (POM: -(CH2-O)n-). Indeed POM could be at the origin of the distributed source of formaldehyde in several comets. Moreover it is produced during the irradiation and/or thermal treatment of cometary ice analogs. It could also have played an important role in the sugar synthesis on the primordial Earth: it is a very concentrated source of formaldehyde. We will discuss the extent to which COSIMA will be able to detect polyoxymethylene. The mass spectrum of POM has been measured using a ground analog of COSIMA, and we have calculated the lifetime of this polymer on cometary grains collected by COSIMA.- Publication:
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AAS/Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts #42
- Pub Date:
- October 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010DPS....42.2836L