Direct measurement of grain acceleration in the near-surface coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko with Rosetta/OSIRIS
Abstract
We for the first time directly measure the acceleration of individual fragments in the inner coma (<2 km) of a comet, and discover the ejection of the material that is thought to subsequently cover large parts of the northern hemisphere as airfall (Thomas et al., 2015).In early 2016, the OSIRIS Narrow Angle Camera on board the Rosetta spacecraft observed fountains of decimeter-sized fragments emerging from confined regions on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. We trace the motion of individual fragments through images obtained at high cadence over an interval of 2 hours, and measure their projected velocities as a function of time. The fragments are accelerated at a constant rate either away from the nucleus or towards it, and to both directions in the horizontal dimension. The magnitude of the acceleration is compatible with both gas drag and rocket force induced by the sublimation of ice contained in the material, but approximately one order of magnitude larger than the local gravity. Some of these fragments are likely to escape from the gravitational field of the nucleus and feed the comet's debris trail, while others will fall back to the surface or senter orbit. A significant fraction of the comet's northern hemisphere is thought to be covered by such airfall material (Thomas et al., 2015). This paper describes our images and trajectory analysis, discusses the implications for fragment ejection and acceleration mechanisms, and the expected fate of the fragments.References: N. Thomas et al. (2015), A&A 583, A17.
- Publication:
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AAS/Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts #48
- Pub Date:
- October 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016DPS....4820105A