67P/C-G Inner Coma dust properties from 2.2 au inbound to 2.0 au outbound to the Sun

Vincenzo Della corte (1) , Alessandra Rotundi (2, 1) , Marco Fulle (3) , Stavro Ivanovski (1) , Simon F. Green (4) , Frans J. M. Rietmeijer (5) , Luigi Colangeli (6) , Pasquale Palumbo (2, 1) , Roberto Sordini (1) , Marco Ferrari (1) , Mario Accolla (7) , V. Zakharov (8) , E. Mazzotta Epifani (9) , P. Weissman (10) , E. Gruen (11) , J. J. Lopez-Moreno (12) , J. Rodriguez (12) , E. Bussoletti (2) , Jean-François Crifo (13) , Francesca Esposito (14) , P. L. Lamy (15) , J. A. M. Mcdonnell (16, 4) , Vito Mennella (14) , A. Molina (17) , R. Morales (12) , F. Moreno (12) , E. Palomba (1) , J. M. Perrin (18, 15) , R. Rodrigo (19, 20) , J. C. Zarnecki (20) , M. Cosi (21) , F. Giovane (22) , B. Gustafson (23) , J. L. Ortiz (12) , J. M. Jeronimo (12) , M. R. Leese (24) , M. Herranz (12) , V. Liuzzi (2) , A. C. Lopez-Jimenez (12)

1 IAPS - Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali - INAF
2 PARTHENOPE - Università degli Studi di Napoli “Parthenope” = University of Naples
3 OAT - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste
4 PSS - Planetary and Space Sciences [Milton Keynes]
5 EPS - Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences [Albuquerque]
6 ESTEC - European Space Research and Technology Centre
7 OACT - INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania
8 LESIA - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique
9 OAR - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma
10 PSI - Planetary Science Institute [Tucson]
11 MPIK - Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik
12 IAA - Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía
13 HELIOS - LATMOS
14 OAC - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte
15 LAM - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille
16 University of Kent [Canterbury]
17 Departamento de Fisica Aplicada [Granada]
18 OHP - Observatoire de Haute-Provence
19 CAB - Centro de Astrobiologia [Madrid]
20 ISSI - International Space Science Institute [Bern]
21 Leonardo
22 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [Blacksburg]
23 UF - University of Florida [Gainesville]
24 School of Physical Sciences [Milton Keynes]

GIADA (Grain Impact Analyzer and Dust Accumulator) on-board the Rosetta space probe is designed to measure the momentum, mass and speed of individual dust particles escaping the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (hereafter 67P). From August 2014 to June 2016 Rosetta escorted comet 67P during its journey around the Sun. Here we focus on GIADA data taken between 2015 January and 2016 February which included 67P's perihelion passage. To better understand cometary activity and more specifically the presence of dust structures in cometary comae, we mapped the spatial distribution of dust density in 67P's coma. In this manner we could track the evolution of high density regions of coma dust and their connections with nucleus illumination conditions, namely tracking 67P's seasons. We also studied the link between dust particle speeds and their masses with respect to heliocentric distance, i.e. the level of cometary activity. This allowed us to derive a global and a local correlation of the dust particles’ speed distribution with respect to the H₂O production rate.

Keywords: methods: data analysis; instrumentation: detectors; comets: individual: 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko; comets: general

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

Vincenzo Della corte, Alessandra Rotundi, Marco Fulle, Stavro Ivanovski, Simon F. Green, et al.. 67P/C-G Inner Coma dust properties from 2.2 au inbound to 2.0 au outbound to the Sun. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2016, 462 (Suppl. 1), pp.S210-S219. ⟨10.1093/mnras/stw2529⟩. ⟨insu-01376669⟩