Noble gases Ar, Kr and Xe measured in the coma of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: implications to early solar system formation

H. R. Balsiger (1) , K. Altwegg (1, 2) , A. Bar-Nun (3) , Jean-Jacques Berthelier (4) , A. M. Bieler (5, 1) , P. Bochsler (1) , C. Briois (6) , U. Calmonte (1) , M. R. Combi (5) , J. de Keyser (7) , B. Fiethe (8) , S. A. Fuselier (9) , S. Gasc (1) , T. I. Gombosi (5) , K. C. Hansen (5) , M. Hässig (1, 9) , E. Kopp (1) , A. Korth (10) , L. Le Roy (2) , U. Mall (10) , B. Marty (11) , O. Mousis (12) , T. C. Owen (13) , H. Reme (14) , M. Rubin (1) , T. Semon (1) , C. Y. Tzou (1) , J. H. Waite (9) , P. Wurz (1)

1 Physikalisches Institut [Bern]
2 CSH - Center for Space and Habitability
3 TAU - Tel Aviv University
4 PLANETO - LATMOS
5 University of Michigan [Ann Arbor]
6 LPC2E - Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace
7 BIRA-IASB - Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy / Institut d'Aéronomie Spatiale de Belgique
8 Technische Universität Braunschweig = Technical University of Braunschweig [Braunschweig]
9 SwRI - Southwest Research Institute [San Antonio]
10 MPS - Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung
11 CRPG - Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques
12 LAM - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille
13 UHM - University of Hawai‘i [Mānoa]
14 IRAP - Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie

The role of comets in the formation of solar system planets, in particular their contribution to the volatiles of the terrestrial planets has been the subject of numerous models and speculations. Having kept at least partially the volatile constituents of the solar nebula, comets are among the most primitive objects in the solar system. Noble gases in the cometary coma are key tracers for assessing origin and processing of planetary atmospheres. We report the detection of Ar, Kr and Xe in the coma of Comet 67P during the same period (May 2016) by the Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer (DFMS) of the ROSINA experiment on ESA's Rosetta spacecraft, their relative abundance and isotopic composition. First implications for the volatile inventory of terrestrial planets and for solar system formation scenarios are discussed.

Keywords: Comets; Surfaces; Ices; Plasma; Dust; MHD instabilities; Small Bodies

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]

H. R. Balsiger, K. Altwegg, A. Bar-Nun, Jean-Jacques Berthelier, A. M. Bieler, et al.. Noble gases Ar, Kr and Xe measured in the coma of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: implications to early solar system formation. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2016, Dec 2016, San Francisco, United States. ⟨insu-03573486⟩