Morphology and dynamics of the jets of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: Early-phase development

Z.-Y. Lin (1) , W.-H. Ip (2, 3, 1) , I.-L. Lai (3) , J.-C. Lee (4) , Jean-Baptste Vincent (5) , Luisa M. Lara (6) , Dennis Bodewits (7) , Holger Sierks (5) , Cesare Barbieri (8, 9) , Philippe L. Lamy (10) , Rafael Rodrigo (11, 12) , Detlef Koschny (13) , Hans Rickman (14) , Horst U. Keller (15) , Jessica Agarwal (5) , Michael F. A'Hearn (7) , Maria Antonietta Barucci (16) , Jean-Loup Bertaux (17) , Ivano Bertini (8) , Gabriele Cremonese (18) , Vania da Deppo (19) , Björn Davidsson (20) , Stefano Debei (21) , Mariolino de Cecco (22) , Sonia Fornasier (23, 16) , Marco Fulle (24) , Olivier Groussin (10) , Pedro J. Gutiérrez (6) , Carsten Güttler (5) , Stubbe F. Hviid (25) , Laurent Jorda (10) , Jörg Knollenberg (25) , G. Kovacs (5) , J.-R. Kramm (5) , Michael Küppers (12) , Ekkehard Kührt (25) , F. La Forgia (9) , M. Lazzarin (9) , Jose J. López-Moreno (6) , Stephen Lowry (26) , F. Marzari (9) , Harald Michalik (27) , S. Mottola (25) , Giampiero Naletto (28) , Nilda Oklay (5) , M. Pajola (8) , A. Rozek (26) , Nicholas Thomas (29) , Y. Liao (29) , Cécilia Tubiana (5)

1 Institute of Astronomy
2 SSI - Space Science Institute [Macau]
3 Institute of Space Science [Taiwan]
4 Department of Earth Sciences [Chung-Li City]
5 MPS - Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung
6 IAA - Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía
7 Department of Astronomy [College Park]
8 CISAS - Centro di Ateneo di Studi e Attività Spaziali “Giuseppe Colombo”
9 Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia "Galileo Galilei"
10 LAM - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille
11 ISSI - International Space Science Institute [Bern]
12 CAB - Centro de Astrobiologia [Madrid]
13 RSSD - Research and Scientific Support Department, ESTEC
14 CBK - Space Research Centre of Polish Academy of Sciences
15 IGEP - Institut für Geophysik und Extraterrestrische Physik [Braunschweig]
16 LESIA - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique
17 PLANETO - LATMOS
18 OAPD - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova
19 IFN - CNR Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnologies
20 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Uppsala]
21 Department of Industrial Engineering [Padova]
22 University of Trento [Trento]
23 UPD7 - Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7
24 OAT - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste
25 DLR Institute of Planetary Research
26 CAPS - Centre for Astrophysics and Planetary Science [Canterbury]
27 Technische Universität Braunschweig = Technical University of Braunschweig [Braunschweig]
28 DEI - Department of Information Engineering [Padova]
29 Physikalisches Institut [Bern]

The OSIRIS camera onboard the Rosetta spacecraft obtained close-up views of the dust coma of comet 67P. The jet structures can be used to trace their source regions and to examine the possible effect of gas-surface interaction. Methods. We analyzed the wide-angle images obtained in the special dust observation sequences between August and September 2014. The jet features detected in different images were compared to study their time variability. The locations of the potential source regions of some of the jets are identified by ray tracing. We used a ring-masking technique to calculate the brightness distribution of dust jets along the projected distance. Results. The jets detected between August and September 2014 mostly originated in the Hapi region. Morphological changes ap- peared over a timescale of several days in September. The brightness slope of the dust jets is much steeper than the background coma. This might be related to the sublimation or fragmentation of the emitted dust grains. Interaction of the expanding gas flow with the cliff walls on both sides of Hapi could lead to erosion and material down-fall to the nucleus surface.

Keywords: comets; 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Astrophysics [astro-ph]

Z.-Y. Lin, W.-H. Ip, I.-L. Lai, J.-C. Lee, Jean-Baptste Vincent, et al.. Morphology and dynamics of the jets of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: Early-phase development. Astronomy and Astrophysics - A&A, 2015, 583, pp.A11. ⟨10.1051/0004-6361/201525961⟩. ⟨insu-01205741⟩