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