TY  - JOUR
A1  - Tosi, Federico
A1  - Capaccioni, F.
A1  - Capria, M. T.
A1  - Mottola, Stefano
A1  - Zinzi, A.
A1  - Ciarniello, M.
A1  - Filacchione, G.
A1  - Hofstadter, M.
A1  - Fonti, S.
A1  - Formisano, M.
A1  - Kappel, David
A1  - Kührt, E.
A1  - Leyrat, C.
A1  - Vincent, J-B
A1  - Arnold, G.
A1  - De Sanctis, M. C.
A1  - Longobardo, Andrea
A1  - Palomba, E.
A1  - Raponi, A.
A1  - Rousseau, Batiste
A1  - Schmitt, Bernard
A1  - Barucci, Maria Antonietta
A1  - Bellucci, Giancarlo
A1  - Benkhoff, Johannes
A1  - Bockelee-Morvan, D.
A1  - Cerroni, P.
A1  - Combe, J-Ph
A1  - Despan, D.
A1  - Erard, Stéphane
A1  - Mancarella, F.
A1  - McCord, T. B.
A1  - Migliorini, Alessandra
A1  - Orofino, V
A1  - Piccioni, G.
T1  - The changing temperature of the nucleus of comet 67P induced by morphological and seasonal effects
JF  - Nature astronomy
N2  - Knowledge of the surface temperature distribution on a comet’s nucleus and its temporal evolution at different timescales is key to constraining its thermophysical properties and understanding the physical processes that take place at and below the surface. Here we report on time-resolved maps of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko retrieved on the basis of infrared data acquired by the Visible InfraRed and Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) onboard the Rosetta orbiter in 2014, over a roughly two-month period in the pre-perihelion phase at heliocentric distances between 3.62 and 3.31 au from the Sun. We find that at a spatial resolution ≤15 m per pixel, the measured temperatures point out the major effect that self-heating, due to the complex shape of the nucleus, has on the diurnal temperature variation. The bilobate nucleus of comet 67P also induces daytime shadowing effects, which result in large thermal gradients. Over longer periods, VIRTIS-derived temperature values reveal seasonal changes driven by decreasing heliocentric distance combined with an increasing abundance of ice within the uppermost centimetre-thick layer, which implies the possibility of having a largely pristine nucleus interior already in the shallow subsurface
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-019-0740-0
SN  - 2397-3366
VL  - 3
IS  - 7
SP  - 649
EP  - 658
PB  - Nature Publ. Group
CY  - London
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Rinaldi, G.
A1  - Formisano, M.
A1  - Kappel, David
A1  - Capaccioni, F.
A1  - Bockelee-Morvan, D.
A1  - Cheng, Y-C
A1  - Vincent, J-B
A1  - Deshapriya, P.
A1  - Arnold, G.
A1  - Capria, M. T.
A1  - Ciarniello, M.
A1  - De Sanctis, M. C.
A1  - Doose, L.
A1  - Erard, S.
A1  - Federico, C.
A1  - Filacchione, G.
A1  - Fink, U.
A1  - Leyrat, C.
A1  - Longobardo, A.
A1  - Magni, G.
A1  - Mighorini, A.
A1  - Mottola, S.
A1  - Naletto, G.
A1  - Raponi, A.
A1  - Taylor, F.
A1  - Tosi, F.
A1  - Tozzi, G. P.
A1  - Salatti, M.
T1  - Analysis of night-side dust activity on comet 67P observed by VIRTIS-M
BT  - a new method to constrain the thermal inertia on the surface
JF  - Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal
N2  - 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.
KW  - comets: general
KW  - comets: individual: 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
KW  - infrared: planetary systems
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201834907
SN  - 1432-0746
VL  - 630
PB  - EDP Sciences
CY  - Les Ulis
ER  -