person:kathrin altwegg

The cometary zoo
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/09/29/the-cometary-zoo

The ROSINA instrument on Rosetta has been “sniffing” the environment of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for the past couple of years, obtaining unprecedented measurements of the gases found in a comet’s atmosphere. Besides the main component – water vapour – ROSINA detected a wide variety of chemical species, from simple atoms to increasingly complex molecules, including some ingredients that were crucial for the origin of life on Earth. In a humorous take on this “cometary zoo”, Kathrin Altwegg, ROSINA principal investigator from University of Bern and an enthusiast of animals, tells us more about the variety of bizarre “creatures” they’ve found at the comet. Let’s start from the volatile species, our beautiful butterflies, including CO, CO2, nitrogen, and the unexpected oxygen. Then, we (...)

Krypton and xenon added to #Rosetta’s noble gas inventory
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/06/14/krypton-and-xenon-added-to-rosettas-noble-gas-inventory

Rosetta has detected the noble gases krypton and xenon while flying close to #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko last month. The detections were made during dedicated orbits between 10 and 31 May, which took the spacecraft to within 10 km of the #comet’s surface, and sometimes as close as 5 km. The discovery was highlighted today by Kathrin Altwegg, Principal Investigator of the ROSINA instrument that made the detections, during a Royal Society meeting on ‘Cometary #Science after #rosetta ’ in London, UK. “We had sporadic hints of krypton while briefly flying at 12 km in early March, but the confirmation was only possible thanks to a longer period of observation during these close orbits,” she says. “Noble gases bound up inside the comet very easily escape into space through sublimation, so (...)

#Comets #Instruments #instruments #science

First detection of molecular oxygen at a #comet
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/10/28/first-detection-of-molecular-oxygen-at-a-comet

ESA’s #Rosetta spacecraft has made the first in situ detection of oxygen molecules outgassing from a comet, a surprising observation that suggests they were incorporated into the comet during its formation. This news story is mirrored from the main ESA web portal. #rosetta has been studying #Comet_67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko for over a year and has detected an abundance of different gases pouring from its nucleus. #water vapour, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide are the most prolific, with a rich array of other nitrogen-, sulphur- and carbon-bearing species, and even ‘noble gases’ also recorded. Oxygen is the third most abundant element in the Universe, but the simplest molecular version of the gas, O2, has proven surprisingly hard to track down, even in star-forming clouds, because it is highly (...)

#Comets #Instruments #Science #coma #instruments #science