comet Chury tagged posts

Researchers have for the first time identified an unexpected richness of complex organic molecules on a comet. This was achieved thanks to the analysis of data collected during ESA’s Rosetta mission at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, also known as Chury. Delivered to the early Earth by impacting comets, these organics may have helped to kick-start carbon-based life as we know it.

Comets are fossils from the ancient times and from the dept...

© ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA). Left, an image of comet Chury showing outgassing of water vapor, which entrains dust (© ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM). Right, the neck region, between the comet’s two lobes. Various types of relief can be seen, including the dunes, at bottom left (circled in red), in the sandy region.

Surprising images from the Rosetta spacecraft show the presence of dune-like patterns on the surface of comet Chury. Researchers at the Laboratoire de Physique et Mécanique des Milieux Hétérogènes (CNRS/ESPCI Paris/UPMC/Université Paris Diderot) studied the available images and modeled the outgassing of vapor to try to explain the phenomenon...

“Chury” with his bi-lobe structure and the weakest part, the neck. Credit: © ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

Based on computer simulations, Astrophysicists at the University of Bern, Switzerland, conclude that the comet Chury did not obtain its duck-like form during the formation of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago. Although it does contain primordial material, they are able to show that the comet in its present form is hardly more than a billion years old. Based on data from the Rosetta space probe, scientists have so far assumed that the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko originated from the initial phase of our solar system. Its peculiar, duck-shaped structure would have resulted from a gentle collision of 2 objects about 4.5 billion years ago.

Based on new research, Martin Jutz...