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Laboratory
for ChemoMetrics,
Vienna (Austria) MS - Chemometrics - COSIMA |
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ROSETTA: Experiments at a Comet |
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[ Aims | People | Results | Presentations | Pictures | ROSETTA | COSIMA Instrument
| Comet
Wirtanen | Literature
] |
Last update 2000-12-04 |
Summary
The ESA (European Space Agency)
will launch the space mission Rosetta
in January 2003 on board of an Ariane-5 rocket. Rosetta will fly-by the Earth
twice and planet Mars once to obtain the necessary speed for reaching the comet
and entering into an orbit. Rosetta will also encounter two asteroids and
finally - after an 8 years cruise - reach the comet 46P/Wirtanen in November 2011. The
intensive measuring phase will be in the following two years.
The space mission Rosetta is named after the famous Rosetta Stone, found 1799 at Rashid (Rosetta) in the Nile delta near the
Mediterranean Sea. The inscriptions on this archaeological finding were the key
to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs. In a similar way data from the Rosetta
mission are expected to provide insights into the origin of the Solar System,
because it is assumed that cometary material preserved the physical and
chemical state of the material which formed the Solar System.
Comet 46/P/Wirtanen
was discovered 1948 at Lick Observatory, California, by Carl A. Wirtanen. The
character “P” denotes a periodic comet; orbital period of the comet is 5.5
years. Nearest distance to sun (perihelion) is 1.06 AU (1 AU = 1 astronomical
unit, equivalent to 1.5 108 km, and corresponds approximately to the
mean distance between Earth and Sun). The diameter of the comet nucleus is
estimated to be only 1400 m; the comet will not be visible by the naked eye.
The scientific
aspects of Rosetta are very ambitious. TheRosetta lander will contain instruments to
investigate the elemental, isotopic, molecular and mineralogical composition on
the surface of the comet.
The Rosetta orbiter will contain 11
instruments such as for imaging, UV, VIS, IR and microwave spectroscopy, and
mass spectrometers for the analysis of neutral gases and ions (ROSINA) and of
dust particles (COSIMA). An atomic force microscope (MIDAS) will measure grain
morphology; other instruments will investigate the comet nucleus, dust flux,
solar wind interactions and radio signals.
Mass spectrometric analyses of dust particles near comet Halley were
performed during a flight-by in year 1986. The obtained data gave high evidence
for presence of organic chemical compounds in cometary dust grains. The COSIMA
instrument will be implemented on the Rosetta orbiter; it will collect
cometary grains and will be capable to analyze organic and inorganic compounds
contained in cometary material.
A contribution to data interpretation by chemometric methods is
developed in the project MS-Chemometrics-COSIMA at the Laboratory for ChemoMetrics (LCM), Vienna University of
Technology.
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[ Aims | People | Results | Presentations | Pictures | ROSETTA | COSIMA Instrument
| Comet
Wirtanen | Literature
] |
Last update 2000-12-04 |
