Analysis of Hybrid Gas-Dust Outbursts Observed at 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Cometary outbursts offer a valuable window into the composition of comet nuclei with their forceful ejection of dust and volatiles in explosive events, revealing the interior components of the comet. Understanding how different types of outbursts influence the dust properties and volatile abundances...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2021-06
Main Authors: Noonan, John W, Rinaldi, Giovanna, Feldman, Paul D, Stern, S Alan, Parker, Joel Wm, Keeney, Brian A, Bockelée-Morvan, Dominique, Vervack, Ronald J, Steffl, Andrew J, Knight, Matthew M, Schindhelm, Rebecca N, Feaga, Lori M, Pineau, Jon, Medina, Richard, Weaver, Harold A, Bertaux, Jean-Loup, A'Hearn, Michael F
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Comet nuclei
Comets
Composition
Dust
Imaging spectrometers
Infrared imaging
Infrared spectrometers
Instrument approach
Outbursts
Spacecraft
Spectra
Spectral classification
Spectral resolution
Spectral signatures
Thermal imaging
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Summary:Cometary outbursts offer a valuable window into the composition of comet nuclei with their forceful ejection of dust and volatiles in explosive events, revealing the interior components of the comet. Understanding how different types of outbursts influence the dust properties and volatile abundances to better interpret what signatures can be attributed to primordial composition and what features are the result of processing is an important task best undertaken with a multi-instrument approach. The European Space Agency \textit{Rosetta} mission to 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko carried a suite of instruments capable of carrying out this task in the near-nucleus coma with unprecedented spatial and spectral resolution. In this work we discuss two outbursts that occurred November 7 2015 and were observed by three instruments on board: the Alice ultraviolet spectrograph, the Visual Infrared and Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS), and the Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System (OSIRIS). Together the observations show that mixed gas and dust outbursts can have different spectral signatures representative of their initiating mechanisms, with the first outburst showing indicators of a cliff collapse origin and the second more representative of fresh volatiles being exposed via a deepening fracture. This analysis opens up the possibility of remote spectral classification of cometary outbursts with future work.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.2106.04736