Far-ultraviolet spectroscopy from inside the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko with Alice on Rosetta

P. D. Feldman (1) , Michael F. A'Hearn (2) , Jean-Loup Bertaux (3) , L. M. Feaga (2) , J. Wm. Parker (4) , E. Schindhelm (5) , A. J. Steffl (5) , S. A. Stern (5) , H. A. Weaver (6)

1 JHU - Johns Hopkins University
2 Department of Astronomy [College Park]
3 PLANETO - LATMOS
4 SERC - Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
5 Department of Space Studies [Boulder]
6 APL - Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory [Laurel, MD]

We present observations of the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko made by the Alice far- ultraviolet spectrograph on Rosetta between January and mid-April 2015. Atomic emissions of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon are interpreted in terms of disso- ciative electron excitation of H2O, CO2, CO, and O2, whose relative abundances can be derived from the spectra and which are found to be both spatially and temporally variable.

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Astrophysics [astro-ph]; Earth and Planetary Astrophysics [astro-ph.EP]; Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Astrophysics [astro-ph]; Solar and Stellar Astrophysics [astro-ph.SR]

P. D. Feldman, Michael F. A'Hearn, Jean-Loup Bertaux, L. M. Feaga, J. Wm. Parker, et al.. Far-ultraviolet spectroscopy from inside the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko with Alice on Rosetta. European Planetary Science Congress 2015, Sep 2015, Nantes, France. pp.EPSC2015-727. ⟨insu-01213925⟩