Comets are thought to preserve almost pristine dust particles, thus providing a unique sample of the properties of the early solar nebula. The microscopic properties of this dust played a key part in particle aggregation during the formation of the Solar System1, 2. Cometary dust was previously considered to comprise irregular, fluffy agglomerates on the basis of interpretations of remote observations in the visible and infrared3, 4, 5, 6 and the study of chondritic porous interplanetary dust particles7 that were thought, but not proved, to originate in comets. Although the dust returned by an earlier mission8 has provided detailed mineralogy of particles from comet 81P/Wild, the fine-grained aggregate component was strongly modified during collection9. Here we report in situ measurements of dust particles at comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The particles are aggregates of smaller, elongated grains, with structures at distinct sizes indicating hierarchical aggregation. Topographic images of selected dust particles with sizes of one micrometre to a few tens of micrometres show a variety of morphologies, including compact single grains and large porous aggregate particles, similar to chondritic porous interplanetary dust particles. The measured grain elongations are similar to the value inferred for interstellar dust and support the idea that such grains could represent a fraction of the building blocks of comets. In the subsequent growth phase, hierarchical agglomeration could be a dominant process10 and would produce aggregates that stick more easily at higher masses and velocities than homogeneous dust particles11. The presence of hierarchical dust aggregates in the near-surface of the nucleus of comet 67P also provides a mechanism for lowering the tensile strength of the dust layer and aiding dust release12.

https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01366821/document

Aggregate dust particles at comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko

Typology of dust particles collected by the COSIMA mass spectrometer in the inner coma of 67P/Churyumov Gerasimenko

Before Rosetta, the space missions Giotto and Stardust shaped our view on cometary dust, supported by plentiful data from Earth based observations and interplanetary dust particles collected in the Earth's atmosphere. The Rosetta mission at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was equipped with a multitude of instruments designed to study cometary dust. While an abundant amount of data was presented in several individual papers, many focused on a dedicated measurement or topic. Different instruments, methods, and data sources provide different measurement parameters and potentially introduce different biases. This can be an advantage if the complementary aspect of such a complex data set can be exploited. However, it also poses a challenge in the comparison of results in the first place. The aim of this work therefore is to summarise dust results from Rosetta and before. We establish a simple classification as a common framework for inter-comparison. This classification is based on a dust particle's structure, porosity, and strength as well as its size. Depending on the instrumentation, these are not direct measurement parameters but we chose them as they were the most reliable to derive our model. The proposed classification already proved helpful in the Rosetta dust community and we propose to take it into consideration also beyond. In this manner we hope to better identify synergies between different instruments and methods in the future.

/pdf/synthesis-of-the-morphological-description-of-cometary-dust-4pc1fafev8.pdf

Synthesis of the Morphological Description of Cometary Dust at Comet 67P

The properties of dust in the protoplanetary disk are key to understanding the formation of planets in our Solar System. Many models of dust growth predict the development of fractal structures that evolve into non-fractal, porous dust pebbles representing the main component for planetesimal accretion. In order to understand comets and their origins, the Rosetta orbiter followed comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for over two years and carried a dedicated instrument suite for dust analysis. One of these instruments, the MIDAS atomic force microscope, recorded the 3D topography of micro- to nanometre sized dust. All particles analysed to date have been found to be hierarchical agglomerates. Most show compact packing, however, one is extremely porous. This paper contains a structural description of a compact aggregate and the outstanding porous one. Both particles are tens of micrometres in size and show rather narrow subunit size distributions with noticeably similar mean values of 1.48+0.13−0.59 μm for the porous particle and 1.36+0.15−0.59 μm for the compact. ompact. The porous particle allows a fractal analysis, where a density-density correlation function yields a fractal dimension of Df = 1.70 ± 0.1. GIADA, another dust analysis instrument on-board Rosetta, confirms the existence of a dust population with a similar fractal dimension. The fractal particles are interpreted as pristine agglomerates built in the protoplanetary disk and preserved in the comet. The similar subunits of both fractal and compact dust indicate a common origin which is, given the properties of the fractal, dominated by slow agglomeration of equally sized aggregates known as cluster-cluster agglomeration.

https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01395718/document

Fractal cometary dust – a window into the early Solar system

This paper is the result of the International Cometary Workshop, held in Toulouse, France in April 2014, where the participants came together to assess our knowledge of comets prior to the ESA Rosetta Mission. In this paper, we look at the composition of the gas and dust from the comae of comets. With the gas, we cover the various taxonomic studies that have broken comets into groups and compare what is seen at all wavelengths. We also discuss what has been learned from mass spectrometers during flybys. A few caveats for our interpretation are discussed. With dust, much of our information comes from flybys. They include in situ analyses as well as samples returned to Earth for laboratory measurements. Remote sensing IR observations and polarimetry are also discussed. For both gas and dust, we discuss what instruments the Rosetta spacecraft and Philae lander will bring to bear to improve our understanding of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as “ground-truth” for our previous comprehensive studies. Finally, we summarize some of the initial Rosetta Mission findings.

The Composition of Comets

The International Rosetta Mission is set for a rendezvous with Comet 67 P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. On its 10 year journey to the comet, the spacecraft will also perform a fly-by of the two asteroids Stein and Lutetia in 2008 and 2010, respectively. The mission goal is to study the origin of comets, the relationship between cometary and interstellar material and its implications with regard to the origin of the Solar System. Measurements will be performed that shed light into the development of cometary activity and the processes in the surface layer of the nucleus and the inner coma. The Micro-Imaging Dust Analysis System (MIDAS) instrument is an essential element of Rosetta's scientific payload. It will provide 3D images and statistical parameters of pristine cometary particles in the nm-μm range from Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. According to cometary dust models and experience gained from the Giotto and Vega missions to 1P/Halley, there appears to be an abundance of particles in this size range, which also covers the building blocks of pristine interplanetary dust particles. The dust collector of MIDAS will point at the comet and collect particles drifting outwards from the nucleus surface. MIDAS is based on an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), a type of scanning microprobe able to image small structures in 3D. AFM images provide morphological and statistical information on the dust population, including texture, shape, size and flux. Although the AFM uses proven laboratory technology, MIDAS is its first such application in space. This paper describes the scientific objectives and background, the technical implementation and the capabilities of MIDAS as they stand after the commissioning of the flight instrument, and the implications for cometary measurements.

http://www.univie.ac.at/geochemistry/koeberl/publikation_list/291-MIDAS-Rosetta-SpSciRev-2007.pdf

Midas : The micro-imaging dust analysis system for the rosetta mission

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Midas : The micro-imaging dust analysis system for the rosetta mission