Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

[John Murrell]

NASA seem to have stolen the science headlines today with the millionth announcement of water on Mars. Meanwhile ESA have announced something much more novel that comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is in fact formed from the fusion of two comets – good thing they gave it a double name !

 

For information see http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/How_Rosetta_s_comet_got_its_shape and a summary by New Scientist at https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28249-rosettawatch-onion-layers-prove-67p-is-a-slow-mo-comet-mash-up/

 

The collision speed must have been very low if the bounces of the lander Philae are any guide. Not sure how two different comets managed to get such close velocities. It may have implications for the formation of planets in the proto-solar disc as well. Also ESA have recently announced that Argon has been detected in the atmosphere of the comet – quite low levels but might explain how the Argon got to Earth ??

 

The Rosetta blog has most of the news at http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/

 

Exciting times in the planetary world – a rash of announcements due to The European Planetary Science Congress taking place which is why I suspect NASA had to release their spoiler data about Mars ?

 

John