@article{ArridgeAchilleosAgarwaletal.2014, author = {Arridge, Christopher S. and Achilleos, N. and Agarwal, Jessica and Agnor, C. B. and Ambrosi, R. and Andre, N. and Badman, S. V. and Baines, K. and Banfield, D. and Barthelemy, M. and Bisi, M. M. and Blum, J. and Bocanegra-Bahamon, T. and Bonfond, B. and Bracken, C. and Brandt, P. and Briand, C. and Briois, C. and Brooks, S. and Castillo-Rogez, J. and Cavalie, T. and Christophe, B. and Coates, Andrew J. and Collinson, G. and Cooper, J. F. and Costa-Sitja, M. and Courtin, R. and Daglis, I. A. and De Pater, Imke and Desai, M. and Dirkx, D. and Dougherty, M. K. and Ebert, R. W. and Filacchione, Gianrico and Fletcher, Leigh N. and Fortney, J. and Gerth, I. and Grassi, D. and Grodent, D. and Gr{\"u}n, Eberhard and Gustin, J. and Hedman, M. and Helled, R. and Henri, P. and Hess, Sebastien and Hillier, J. K. and Hofstadter, M. H. and Holme, R. and Horanyi, M. and Hospodarsky, George B. and Hsu, S. and Irwin, P. and Jackman, C. M. and Karatekin, O. and Kempf, Sascha and Khalisi, E. and Konstantinidis, K. and Kruger, H. and Kurth, William S. and Labrianidis, C. and Lainey, V. and Lamy, L. L. and Laneuville, Matthieu and Lucchesi, D. and Luntzer, A. and MacArthur, J. and Maier, A. and Masters, A. and McKenna-Lawlor, S. and Melin, H. and Milillo, A. and Moragas-Klostermeyer, Georg and Morschhauser, Achim and Moses, J. I. and Mousis, O. and Nettelmann, N. and Neubauer, F. M. and Nordheim, T. and Noyelles, B. and Orton, G. S. and Owens, Mathew and Peron, R. and Plainaki, C. and Postberg, F. and Rambaux, N. and Retherford, K. and Reynaud, Serge and Roussos, E. and Russell, C. T. and Rymer, Am. and Sallantin, R. and Sanchez-Lavega, A. and Santolik, O. and Saur, J. and Sayanagi, Km. and Schenk, P. and Schubert, J. and Sergis, N. and Sittler, E. C. and Smith, A. and Spahn, Frank and Srama, Ralf and Stallard, T. and Sterken, V. and Sternovsky, Zoltan and Tiscareno, M. and Tobie, G. and Tosi, F. and Trieloff, M. and Turrini, D. and Turtle, E. P. and Vinatier, S. and Wilson, R. and Zarkat, P.}, title = {The science case for an orbital mission to Uranus: Exploring the origins and evolution of ice giant planets}, series = {Planetary and space science}, volume = {104}, journal = {Planetary and space science}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0032-0633}, doi = {10.1016/j.pss.2014.08.009}, pages = {122 -- 140}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Giant planets helped to shape the conditions we see in the Solar System today and they account for more than 99\% of the mass of the Sun's planetary system. They can be subdivided into the Ice Giants (Uranus and Neptune) and the Gas Giants (Jupiter and Saturn), which differ from each other in a number of fundamental ways. Uranus, in particular is the most challenging to our understanding of planetary formation and evolution, with its large obliquity, low self-luminosity, highly asymmetrical internal field, and puzzling internal structure. Uranus also has a rich planetary system consisting of a system of inner natural satellites and complex ring system, five major natural icy satellites, a system of irregular moons with varied dynamical histories, and a highly asymmetrical magnetosphere. Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have explored Uranus, with a flyby in 1986, and no mission is currently planned to this enigmatic system. However, a mission to the uranian system would open a new window on the origin and evolution of the Solar System and would provide crucial information on a wide variety of physicochemical processes in our Solar System. These have clear implications for understanding exoplanetary systems. In this paper we describe the science case for an orbital mission to Uranus with an atmospheric entry probe to sample the composition and atmospheric physics in Uranus' atmosphere. The characteristics of such an orbiter and a strawman scientific payload are described and we discuss the technical challenges for such a mission. This paper is based on a white paper submitted to the European Space Agency's call for science themes for its large-class mission programme in 2013.}, language = {en} } @article{QuiricoMorozSchmittetal.2016, author = {Quirico, E. and Moroz, Liubov V. and Schmitt, B. and Arnold, Gabriele and Faure, M. and Beck, P. and Bonal, L. and Ciarniello, M. and Capaccioni, F. and Filacchione, G. and Erard, S. and Leyrat, C. and Bockelee-Morvan, D. and Zinzi, A. and Palomba, E. and Drossart, P. and Tosi, F. and Capria, M. T. and De Sanctis, M. C. and Raponi, A. and Fonti, S. and Mancarella, F. and Orofino, V. and Barucci, A. and Blecka, M. I. and Carlson, R. and Despan, D. and Faure, A. and Fornasier, S. and Gudipati, M. S. and Longobardo, A. and Markus, K. and Mennella, V. and Merlin, F. and Piccioni, G. and Rousseau, B. and Taylor, F.}, title = {Refractory and semi-volatile organics at the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: Insights from the VIRTIS/Rosetta imaging spectrometer}, series = {Icarus : international journal of solar system studies}, volume = {272}, journal = {Icarus : international journal of solar system studies}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {San Diego}, organization = {Rosetta VIRTIS Team}, issn = {0019-1035}, doi = {10.1016/j.icarus.2016.02.028}, pages = {32 -- 47}, year = {2016}, abstract = {The VIRTIS (Visible, Infrared and Thermal Imaging Spectrometer) instrument aboard the Rosetta spacecraft has performed extensive spectral mapping of the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in the range 0.3-5 mu m. The reflectance spectra collected across the surface display a low reflectance factor over the whole spectral range, two spectral slopes in the visible and near-infrared ranges and a broad absorption band centered at 3.2 mu m. The first two of these characteristics are typical of dark small bodies of the Solar System and are difficult to interpret in terms of composition. Moreover, solar wind irradiation may modify the structure and composition of surface materials and there is no unequivocal interpretation of these spectra devoid of vibrational bands. To circumvent these problems, we consider the composition of cometary grains analyzed in the laboratory to constrain the nature of the cometary materials and consider results on surface rejuvenation and solar wind processing provided by the OSIRIS and ROSINA instruments, respectively. Our results lead to five main conclusions: (i) The low albedo of comet 67P/CG is accounted for by a dark refractory polyaromatic carbonaceous component mixed with opaque minerals. VIRTIS data do not provide direct insights into the nature of these opaque minerals. However, according to the composition of cometary grains analyzed in the laboratory, we infer that they consist of Fe-Ni alloys and FeS sulfides. (ii) A semi-volatile component, consisting of a complex mix of low weight molecular species not volatilized at T similar to 220 K, is likely a major carrier of the 3.2 p.m band. Water ice contributes significantly to this feature in the neck region but not in other regions of the comet. COOH in carboxylic acids is the only chemical group that encompasses the broad width of this feature. It appears as a highly plausible candidate along with the NH4+ ion. (iii) Photolytic/thermal residues, produced in the laboratory from interstellar ice analogs, are potentially good spectral analogs. (iv) No hydrated minerals were identified and our data support the lack of genetic links with the CI, CR and CM primitive chondrites. This concerns in particular the Orgueil chondrite, previously suspected to have been of cometary origin. (v) The comparison between fresh and aged terrains revealed no effect of solar wind irradiation on the 3.2 mu m band. This is consistent with the presence of efficient resurfacing processes such as dust transport from the interior to the surface, as revealed by the OSIRIS camera. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @article{RinaldiFormisanoKappeletal.2019, author = {Rinaldi, G. and Formisano, M. and Kappel, David and Capaccioni, F. and Bockelee-Morvan, D. and Cheng, Y-C and Vincent, J-B and Deshapriya, P. and Arnold, G. and Capria, M. T. and Ciarniello, M. and De Sanctis, M. C. and Doose, L. and Erard, S. and Federico, C. and Filacchione, G. and Fink, U. and Leyrat, C. and Longobardo, A. and Magni, G. and Mighorini, A. and Mottola, S. and Naletto, G. and Raponi, A. and Taylor, F. and Tosi, F. and Tozzi, G. P. and Salatti, M.}, title = {Analysis of night-side dust activity on comet 67P observed by VIRTIS-M}, series = {Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal}, volume = {630}, journal = {Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal}, publisher = {EDP Sciences}, address = {Les Ulis}, issn = {1432-0746}, doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/201834907}, pages = {16}, year = {2019}, abstract = {On 2015 July 18, near perihelion at a heliocentric distance of 1.28 au, the Visible InfraRed Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS-M) on board the Rosetta spacecraft had the opportunity of observing dust activity in the inner coma with a view of the night side (shadowed side) of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. At the time of the measurements we present here, we observe a dust plume that originates on the far side of the nucleus. We are able to identify the approximate location of its source at the boundary between the Hapi and Anuket regions, and we find that it has been in darkness for some hours before the observation. Assuming that this time span is equal to the conductive time scale, we obtain a thermal inertia in the range 25-36 W K-1 m(-2) s(-1/2). These thermal inertia values can be used to verify with a 3D finite-element method (REM) numerical code whether the surface and subsurface temperatures agree with the values found in the literature. We explored three different configurations: (1) a layer of water ice mixed with dust beneath a dust mantle of 5 mm with thermal inertia of 36 J m(-2) K-1 S-0.5 ; (2) the same structure, but with thermal inertia of 100 J m(-2) K-1 S-0.5; (3) an ice-dust mixture that is directly exposed. Of these three configurations, the first seems to be the most reasonable, both for the low thermal inertia and for the agreement with the surface and subsurface temperatures that have been found for the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The spectral properties of the plume show that the visible dust color ranged from 16 +/- 4.8\%/100 nm to 13 +/- 2.6\%/100 nm, indicating that this plume has no detectable color gradient. The morphology of the plume can be classified as a narrow jet that has an estimated total ejected mass of between 6 and 19 tons when we assume size distribution indices between -2.5 and -3.}, language = {en} }