ESA's Cometary Mission Rosetta—Re‐Characterization of the COSAC Mass Spectrometry Results. Issue 29 (25th May 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Leseigneur, Guillaume; Bredehöft, Jan Hendrik; Gautier, Thomas; Giri, Chaitanya; Krüger, Harald; MacDermott, Alexandra J.; Meierhenrich, Uwe J.; Caro, Guillermo M. Muñoz; Raulin, François; Steele, Andrew; Steininger, Harald; Szopa, Cyril; Thiemann, Wolfram; Ulamec, Stephan; Goesmann, Fred
• Is Part Of: Angewandte Chemie international edition. Volume 61:Issue 29(2022)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2022-05-25
• Subjects: Analytical Methods -- Comet -- Mass Spectrometry -- Philae -- Rosetta; Chemistry -- Periodicals; 540
• DOI: 10.1002/anie.202201925
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1433-7851

Abstract

Abstract: The most pristine material of the Solar System is assumed to be preserved in comets in the form of dust and ice as refractory matter. ESA's mission Rosetta and its lander Philae had been developed to investigate the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in situ. Twenty‐five minutes after the initial touchdown of Philae on the surface of comet 67P in November 2014, a mass spectrum was recorded by the time‐of‐flight mass spectrometer COSAC onboard Philae. The new characterization of this mass spectrum through non‐negative least squares fitting and Monte Carlo simulations reveals the chemical composition of comet 67P. A suite of 12 organic molecules, 9 of which also found in the original analysis of this data, exhibit high statistical probability to be present in the grains sampled from the cometary nucleus. These volatile molecules are among the most abundant in the comet's chemical composition and represent an inventory of the first raw materials present in the early Solar System. Abstract : ESA's comet rendezvous mission Rosetta investigated the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko to reveal information about the most pristine material preserved in the Solar System. The analysis of the mass spectrum recorded twenty‐five minutes after touchdown by non‐negative least squares fitting and Monte Carlo simulations shows the presence of twelve organic molecules that represent the inventory of cometary nuclei and the early Solar System. Credit ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA .