scholarly journals Organics in cometary and interplanetary dust

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (S251) ◽  
pp. 315-316
Author(s):  
A. Chantal Levasseur-Regourd ◽  
Jeremie Lasue
Keyword(s):  
Organic Compounds ◽  
Interplanetary Dust ◽  
Scattering Data ◽  
Dust Particles ◽  
Zodiacal Light ◽  
Interplanetary Dust Particles ◽  
Refractory Component ◽  
Cometary Dust ◽  
Absorbing Material ◽  
Cometary Comae

AbstractWhile gaseous carbon-rich species in cometary comae (coming from the nuclei icy component) are extensively studied by spectroscopic remote observations, so-called CHONs dust particles, i. e. organic compounds coming from the nuclei refractory component, have mostly been studied by dust mass spectrometers flying through the comae of comets 1P/Halley and 81P/Wild 2. However, remote observations of the light scattered by dust in cometary comae and in the interplanetary medium, coupled with both numerical and experimental simulations, have recently allowed us to confirm that such particles harbor a significant fraction of absorbing material, presumably consisting of organic compounds (Levasseur-Regourd et al. PSS 2007, Lasue et al. A&A 2007).We estimate the fraction of absorbing material present in cometary dust for extensively observed comets (e.g., 1P/Halley, C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp) and in the interplanetary dust (from zodiacal light observations). We also establish that, besides compact particles, fluffy aggregates are definitely present in these media. The properties (e.g., size distribution, morphology, composition) of the cometary and interplanetary dust particles, as inferred from light scattering data analysis, are compared with those of the IDPS collected in the upper Earth atmosphere and of the unique samples returned by the Stardust mission at Wild 2. The results are discussed in terms of the formation of comets in the protosolar nebula, and of the possible survival, at the epoch of late early bombardment, of cometary organics embedded in fluffy aggregates.

scholarly journals Analogues of interplanetary dust particles to interpret the zodiacal light polarization

2020 ◽  
Vol 183 ◽  
pp. 104527 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Hadamcik ◽  
J. Lasue ◽  
A.C. Levasseur-Regourd ◽  
J.-B. Renard
Keyword(s):  
Interplanetary Dust ◽  
Light Polarization ◽  
Dust Particles ◽  
Zodiacal Light ◽  
Interplanetary Dust Particles

scholarly journals Dust of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko collected by Rosetta/MIDAS: classification and extension to the nanometer scale

2019 ◽  
Vol 630 ◽  
pp. A26 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Mannel ◽  
M. S. Bentley ◽  
P. D. Boakes ◽  
H. Jeszenszky ◽  
P. Ehrenfreund ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Interplanetary Dust ◽  
Dust Particles ◽  
Nanometer Scale ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
Interplanetary Dust Particles ◽  
Surface Features ◽  
Cometary Dust ◽  
Log Normal ◽  
Resolution Of Imaging ◽  
Comet 67P

Context. The properties of the smallest subunits of cometary dust contain information on their origin and clues to the formation of planetesimals and planets. Compared to interplanetary dust particles or particles collected during the Stardust mission, dust collected in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P) during the Rosetta mission provides a resource of minimally altered material with known origin whose structural properties can be used to further the investigation of the early solar system. Aims. The cometary dust particle morphologies found at comet 67P on the micrometer scale are classified, and their structural analysis is extended to the nanometer scale. Methods. We present a novel method for achieving the highest spatial resolution of imaging obtained with the MIDAS Atomic Force Microscope on board Rosetta. 3D topographic images with resolutions down to 8 nm were analyzed to determine the subunit sizes of particles on the nanometer scale. Results. Three morphological classes can be determined: (i) fragile agglomerate particles of sizes larger than about 10 μm comprised of micrometer-sized subunits that may themselves be aggregates and show a moderate packing density on the surface of the particles. (ii) A fragile agglomerate with a size of about a few tens of micrometers comprised of micrometer-sized subunits that are suggested to be aggregates themselves and are arranged in a structure with a fractal dimension lower than two. (iii) Small micrometer-sized particles comprised of subunits in the size range of hundreds of nanometers that show surface features that are again suggested to represent subunits. Their differential size distributions follow a log-normal distribution with means of about 100 nm and standard deviations between 20 and 35 nm. Conclusions. The properties of the dust particles found by MIDAS represent an extension of the dust results of Rosetta to the micro- and nanometer scale. All micrometer-sized particles are hierarchical dust agglomerates of smaller subunits. The arrangement, appearance, and size distribution of the smallest determined surface features are reminiscent of those found in chondritic porous interplanetary dust particles. They represent the smallest directly detected subunits of comet 67P.

scholarly journals Synthesis of the morphological description of cometary dust at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

2019 ◽  
Vol 630 ◽  
pp. A24 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Güttler ◽  
T. Mannel ◽  
A. Rotundi ◽  
S. Merouane ◽  
M. Fulle ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Interplanetary Dust ◽  
Dust Particles ◽  
Morphological Description ◽  
Complex Data ◽  
Particle Structure ◽  
Interplanetary Dust Particles ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Cometary Dust ◽  
Common Framework ◽  
Comet 67P

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 summarize dust results from Rosetta and before. We establish a simple classification as a common framework for intercomparison. This classification is based on the dust particle structure, porosity, and strength and also on its size. Depending on the instrumentation, these are not direct measurement parameters, but we chose them because they were the most reliable for deriving our model. The proposed classification has proved helpful in the Rosetta dust community, and we offer it here also for a broader context. In this manner, we hope to better identify synergies between different instruments and methods in the future.

scholarly journals The Contribution of Kuiper Belt Dust Grains to the Inner Solar System

1996 ◽  
Vol 150 ◽  
pp. 163-166
Author(s):  
Jer-Chyi Liou ◽  
Herbert A. Zook ◽  
Stanley F. Dermott
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Interstellar Dust ◽  
Numerical Study ◽  
Kuiper Belt ◽  
Interplanetary Dust ◽  
Dust Particles ◽  
Dust Grains ◽  
Zodiacal Light ◽  
Interplanetary Dust Particles ◽  
The Earth

AbstractThe recent discovery of the so-called Kuiper belt objects has prompted the idea that these objects produce dust grains that may contribute significantly to the interplanetary dust population at 1 AU. We have completed a numerical study of the orbital evolution of dust grains, of diameters 1 to 9 μm, that originate in the region of the Kuiper belt. Our results show that about 80% of the grains are ejected from the Solar System by the giant planets while the remaining 20% of the grains evolve all the way to the Sun. Surprisingly, these dust grains have small orbital eccentricities and inclinations when they cross the orbit of the Earth. This makes them behave more like asteroidal than cometary-type dust particles. This also enhances their chances to be captured by the Earth and makes them a possible source of the collected interplanetary dust particles (IDPs); in particular, they represent a possible source that brings primitive/organic materials from the outer Solar System to the Earth.When collisions with interstellar dust grains are considered, however, Kuiper belt dust grains larger than about 9 μm appear likely to be collisionally shattered before they can evolve to the inner part of the Solar System. Therefore, Kuiper belt dust grains may not, as they are expected to be small, contribute significantly to the zodiacal light.

scholarly journals 21. Light of the Night Sky / Lumière du Ciel Nocturne

1997 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 231-236
Author(s):  
Christoph Leinert
Keyword(s):  
Interstellar Dust ◽  
Thermal Emission ◽  
Scattered Light ◽  
Diffuse Radiation ◽  
Interplanetary Dust ◽  
Dust Particles ◽  
Zodiacal Light ◽  
Interplanetary Dust Particles ◽  
Extragalactic Background Light ◽  
Night Sky

The light of the night sky is a difficult to disentangle mixture of tropospherically scattered light, airglow, zodiacal light (including the thermal emission by interplanetary dust particles), unresolved stellar light, diffuse scattering and emission by interstellar dust and gas, and finally an extragalactic component. It has the reputation of being a very traditional field of astronomy, which certainly is true if we look at the long history of the subject. The recent renewed interest in this topic, which continued during this triennium, appears mainly to come from three sources: - first from the impressive results of the IRAS and COBE infrared satellites. They brought to general consciousness the fact that the infrared sky is characterised by strong emission from interplanetary and interstellar dust, and made clear that this emission may interfere with the study of faint interesting sources. - then from the development of sensitive detectors and arrays for essentially all of the wavelength range to be covered in this report, from the Lyman limit to ≈ 300 μm. Now the difficult measurements of the ultraviolet diffuse radiation and of the extragalactic background light in the infrared cosmological windows around 3 μm and 200 μm have become feasible and state of the art projects. - finally, the threat to astronomical observations arising from man-made development and lighting has become important enough to further studies of uncontaminated and contaminated night sky brightnesses. This report will refer mainly to those areas and is meant to highlight noteworthy developments. It was prepared with the help of Drs. Bowyer and Mattila.

scholarly journals Scattering, absorption, and thermal emission by large cometary dust particles: Synoptic numerical solution

2019 ◽  
Vol 631 ◽  
pp. A164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Markkanen ◽  
Jessica Agarwal
Keyword(s):  
Light Scattering ◽  
Numerical Solution ◽  
Electromagnetic Waves ◽  
Random Media ◽  
Thermal Emission ◽  
Interplanetary Dust ◽  
Dust Particles ◽  
Conductive Heat ◽  
Interplanetary Dust Particles ◽  
Cometary Dust

Context. Remote light scattering and thermal infrared observations provide clues about the physical properties of cometary and interplanetary dust particles. Identifying these properties will lead to a better understanding of the formation and evolution of the Solar System. Aims. We present a numerical solution for the radiative and conductive heat transport in a random particulate medium enclosed by an arbitrarily shaped surface. The method will be applied to study thermal properties of cometary dust particles. Methods. The recently introduced incoherent Monte Carlo radiative transfer method developed for scattering, absorption, and propagation of electromagnetic waves in dense discrete random media is extended for radiative heat transfer and thermal emission. The solution is coupled with the conductive Fourier transport equation that is solved with the finite-element method. Results. The proposed method allows the synoptic analysis of light scattering and thermal emission by large cometary dust particles consisting of submicrometer-sized grains. In particular, we show that these particles can sustain significant temperature gradients resulting in the superheating factor phase function observed for the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

scholarly journals Tholins and their relevance for astrophysical issues

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (S251) ◽  
pp. 409-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Quirico ◽  
C. Szopa ◽  
G. Cernogora ◽  
V. Lees ◽  
S. Derenne ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Analytical Techniques ◽  
Interplanetary Dust ◽  
Dust Particles ◽  
Chemical Information ◽  
Interstellar Space ◽  
Interplanetary Dust Particles ◽  
Absorption Bands ◽  
Visible Absorption ◽  
Organic Solids ◽  
Cometary Dust

AbstractTholins are polymeric hydrogenated carbon nitrides formed from N2:CH4 mixtures exposed to electrical discharges. They are complex disordered solids, and their structural chemistry and formation processes are not yet fully understood. Tholins have been widely adopted as useful analogs of reddish organic solids associated with planetary bodies or in interstellar space (e.g., Titan's aerosols, reddish surfaces of outer objects, interstellar organics, etc.) for fitting astronomical observations. However, there has been little evidence to date that they in fact constitute pertinent model materials, i. e. with chemical structure/composition similar to those presumed to be present in planetary or interstellar organic solids. In this contribution, we first review recent advances made regarding the determination of composition and structure of tholins produced in the laboratory. They point to a high chemical selectivity in the range of functional groups present, the control of unsaturation by nitrogen, and the highly disordered character of the structures. In a second section, we discuss the relationship between chemistry and the optical properties of tholins, and we point out the lack of a unique relationship between the shape and strength of the visible absorption bands and the chemical composition or structure of the model tholins. The tholins exhibit similarities with HCN “polymers”, that are suspected to be present in cometary refractory dust. This points to the existence of possible similar polymerisation processes, and it suggests they could also be used as analogs of N-rich cometary organics. Laboratory-based studies of cometary dust might offer new insights on the “chemical relevancy” of tholins, as combined micro-analytical techniques will allow direct comparison of chemical information between the materials produced. In a third section we present recent results pertaining to the search for such compounds in cometary grains (Stardust grains, interplanetary dust particles - IDPs). We show that some N-rich spots in stratospheric IDPs are rich in cyanide species, but no tholin-like compounds or polymeric HCN have been detected to date.

A comparison between polarimetric properties of cometary dust and interplanetary dust particles

Icarus ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 264-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.C. Levasseur-regourd ◽  
R. Dumont ◽  
J.B. Renard
Keyword(s):  
Interplanetary Dust ◽  
Dust Particles ◽  
Interplanetary Dust Particles ◽  
Cometary Dust

scholarly journals Spatially Varying Optical Properties of the Zodiacal Dust

1989 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 267-272
Author(s):  
S. S. Hong ◽  
S. M. Kwon
Keyword(s):  
Optical Properties ◽  
Interplanetary Dust ◽  
Dust Particles ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Zodiacal Light ◽  
Interplanetary Dust Particles ◽  
Ample Evidence ◽  
Mixing Ratios ◽  
Zodiacal Dust ◽  
Spatially Varying

AbstractAnalyses of both the zodiacal light in the visible and the zodiacal emission in the infrared have provided us with ample evidence to claim that the interplanetary dust particles are mixtures or coagulations of more than one constituents and their mixing ratios vary with the distance from the sun.

scholarly journals The asteroid-comet continuum from laboratory and space analyses of comet samples and micrometeorites

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (A29A) ◽  
pp. 253-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cécile Engrand ◽  
Jean Duprat ◽  
Noémie Bardin ◽  
Emmanuel Dartois ◽  
Hugues Leroux ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Interplanetary Dust ◽  
Cosmic Dust ◽  
Dust Particles ◽  
Interplanetary Dust Particles ◽  
Cometary Dust ◽  
History Of ◽  
Polar Snow ◽  
Comet 67P ◽  
Cometary Origin

AbstractComets are probably the best archives of the nascent solar system, 4.5 Gyr ago, and their compositions reveal crucial clues on the structure and dynamics of the early protoplanetary disk. Anhydrous minerals (olivine and pyroxene) have been identified in cometary dust for a few decades. Surprisingly, samples from comet Wild2 returned by the Stardust mission in 2006 also contain high temperature mineral assemblages like chondrules and refractory inclusions, which are typical components of primitive meteorites (carbonaceous chondrites - CCs). A few Stardust samples have also preserved some organic matter of comet Wild 2 that share some similarities with CCs. Interplanetary dust falling on Earth originate from comets and asteroids in proportions to be further constrained. These cosmic dust particles mostly show similarities with CCs, which in turn only represent a few percent of meteorites recovered on Earth. At least two (rare) families of cosmic dust particles have shown strong evidences for a cometary origin: the chondritic porous interplanetary dust particles (CP-IDPs) collected in the terrestrial stratosphere by NASA, and the ultracarbonaceous Antarctic Micrometeorites (UCAMMs) collected from polar snow and ice by French and Japanese teams. Analyses of dust particles from the Jupiter family comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by the dust analyzers on Rosetta orbiter (COSIMA, GIADA, MIDAS) suggest a relationship to interplanetary dust/micrometeorites. A growing number of evidences highlights the existence of a continuum between asteroids and comets, already in the early history of the solar system.

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