VIRTIS tagged posts

Carbon dioxide detection

As Rosetta’s comet approached its most active period last year, the spacecraft spotted CO2 ice – never before seen on a comet – followed by the emergence of 2 unusually large patches of water ice. The CO2 ice layer covered an area comparable to the size of a football pitch, while the two water ice patches were each larger than an Olympic swimming pool and much larger than any signs of water ice previously spotted at the comet.The 3 icy layers were all found in the same region, on the comet’s southern hemisphere.

A combination of the complex shape of the comet, its elongated path around the Sun and the substantial tilt of its spin, seasons are spread unequally between the 2 hemispheres of the double-lobed Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko...