67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko / Science
Science · 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko
These are six research papers, all free to read on arXiv, about 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. We summarize each one in plain English from its abstract.
Our own artist's impression. No figures are taken from the papers.
Every number links to the paper it comes from.
What 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko is made of and how its surface behaves.
What they foundBoth lobes of 67P show stacked layers, like rock strata, and their orientations could be mapped across the nucleus.
A thesis that mapped layer lines on a 3D shape model using high-resolution Rosetta OSIRIS images.
What they foundDust lifted from one hemisphere of 67P falls back on the other as 'airfall', losing some of its water and CO₂ ice on the way.
Numerical simulations combining orbit dynamics, heat flow, gas flow and dust motion.
What they foundThe team built an inventory of the major elements and volatile molecules in 67P's nucleus, which turns out broadly similar to comet Halley.
Rosetta ROSINA gas measurements near perihelion, combined with published dust composition data.
What they foundWhen the Aswan cliff collapsed on 10 July 2015 it exposed material from about 12 m deep, with roughly equal dust and water ice by mass and a lot of CO₂; a thin dust coat re-formed within about 7 months.
Rosetta MIRO microwave data from before and after the collapse, analysed with heat-flow models.
How 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko moves, and the gravity and sunlight forces that shape its path.
What they found67P's orbit has been reshaped by close passes of Jupiter, notably in 1923 and 1959, and its path is chaotic on short timescales.
The authors followed 1,000 'clone' orbits backwards in time, with and without the push from outgassing.
Where 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko came from and how it formed and changed over time.
What they foundThe oxygen gas seen at 67P (1–10% of the gas) could have been made by radiation hitting icy grains before the Solar System formed, then trapped in ice cages called clathrates.
A modelling study testing how oxygen could be produced and stored, compared with Rosetta's ROSINA gas measurements.
Source for: Molecular oxygen in the gas
New papers on 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, checked weekly, summarized after a person reads it.
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We search arXiv for 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko papers and keep the ones that add something new, are clearly written up and are relevant to a general reader. A person reads every abstract.
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