GIADA’s dust measurements : 3.7-3.4 AU
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/01/22/giadas-dust-measurements-3-7-3-4-au
Based on inputs from GIADA team members Alessandra Rotundi (instrument PI) and Marco Fulle, following the publication of “Dust Measurements in the Coma of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Inbound to the Sun Between 3.7 and 3.4 AU” in the journal #Science today. GIADA is #Rosetta’s Grain Impact Analyzer and Dust Accumulator. Our published research so far focuses on two aspects of the dust around Comet 67P/C-G: the different populations of dust grain found either in bound orbits or out-flowing from the nucleus, and the dust-to-gas ratio in the coma. First let’s discuss the grain population, considering measurements made with both GIADA and OSIRIS on 4 August 2014, when we were still at 275 km from the comet. These observations allowed us to count about 350 grains in bound orbits around the (...)