Rotational Variation of Outgassing Morphology in 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Abstract
Images of the innermost coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko taken in various gaseous species with the OSIRIS camera on Rosetta show localized sources that expand hemispherically, contrary to the narrow jets seen in broad band images, which are domnated by continuum radiation reflected by the grains. The gaseous images have the continuum removed, but we have not derived column densities because of uncertainty about physical processes. Thus the morphology is the most reliable aspect of the data. We will compare the morphology in various species and attempt to estimate the decoupling distance of the grains from the gas. We will also attempt to relate these features to the point of origin on the nucleus.