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With the historic arrival of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft at destination Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko flawlessly accomplished on August 6, 2014 after a decade long journey, ground breaking up close science at this bizarre world has begun while the team diligently and simultaneously searches for a landing site for the attached Philae comet lander.
Rosetta started collecting cometary dust from the coma encircling the comet with the onboard COSIMA instrument on Sunday, August 10, 2014 as the spacecraft orbits around and ahead of the icy wanderer from a distance of approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles).
COSIMA stands for Cometary Secondary Ion Mass Analyser and is one of Rosetta's suite of 11 state-of-the-art science instruments with a combined mass of 165 kg.
Its purpose is to conduct the first 'in situ' analysis of the grains of dust particles emitted from the comets nucleus and determine their physical and chemical characteristics, including whether they are organic or inorganic - in essence what is cometary dust material made of and how it differs from the surface composition.
COSIMA will collect the coma dust using 24 specially designed target holders, the first of which was opened on Aug. 10. Since the comet is not especially active right now, the team plans to keep the target holder open for at least a month and check the progress of any collections on a weekly basis.
In fact the team says the coma environment 'is still comparable to a high-quality cleanroom'at this time.
But everyone expects that to change radically as Rosetta continues escorting Comet 67P as it loops around the sun, getting closer and warming the surface every day and until reaching perihelion in August 2015.
COSIMA is managed by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung ) in Katlenburg-Lindau Germany with Principal Investigator Martin Hilchenbach.
There are also ssubstantial contributions from the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale in France. The target holders measure about one square centimeter and were developed by the Universität der Bundeswehr in Germany.
Each of these targets measures one square centimeter and is comprised of a gold plate covered with a thin 30 µm layer of gold nanoparticles ('gold black') which the team says should 'decelerate and capture cometary dust particles impacting with velocities of ~100 m/s.'
The target will be illuminated by a pair of LED's. The particles will be analyzed by COSIMA's built in mass spectrometer and the COSISCOPE microscopic camera.
The team expects any grains found on the first target to be analyzed by mid-September 2014.
'COSIMA uses the method of Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry. They will be fired at with a beam of Indium ions. This will spark individual ions (we say secondary ions) from their surfaces, which will then be analysed with COSIMA's mass spectrometer,' according to a description from the COSIMA team.
Dr. Ken Kremer is a speaker, scientist, freelance science journalist (Princeton, NJ) and photographer whose articles, space exploration images and Mars mosaics have appeared in magazines, books, websites and calanders including Astronomy Picture of the Day, NBC, BBC, SPACE.com, Spaceflight Now and the covers of Aviation Week & Space Technology, Spaceflight and the Explorers Club magazines. Ken has presented at numerous educational institutions, civic & religious organizations, museums and astronomy clubs. Ken has reported first hand from the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral and NASA Wallops on over 40 launches including 8 shuttle launches. He lectures on both Human and Robotic spaceflight - www.kenkremer.com. Follow Ken on Facebook and Twitter
Tagged as: Comet 67P, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Comets, COSIMA, esa, ESOC, philae lander, rosetta, short period comets
Entities 0 Name: COSIMA Count: 7 1 Name: Rosetta Count: 4 2 Name: Comet Count: 2 3 Name: Cometary Secondary Ion Mass Analyser Count: 1 4 Name: Universität der Bundeswehr Count: 1 5 Name: Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry Count: 1 6 Name: ESOC Count: 1 7 Name: European Space Agency Count: 1 8 Name: Ken Count: 1 9 Name: NASA Wallops Count: 1 10 Name: Explorers Club Count: 1 11 Name: Martin Hilchenbach Count: 1 12 Name: Germany Count: 1 13 Name: NBC Count: 1 14 Name: Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research Count: 1 15 Name: Princeton Count: 1 16 Name: Dr. Ken Kremer Count: 1 17 Name: BBC Count: 1 18 Name: France Count: 1 19 Name: Indium Count: 1 20 Name: SPACE.com Count: 1 21 Name: Katlenburg-Lindau Germany Count: 1 22 Name: LED Count: 1 23 Name: Cape Canaveral Count: 1 24 Name: Aviation Week & Space Technology Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/VbpPii Title: APOD: 2014 August 11 - Rosetta Approaches Comet Churyumov Gerasimenko Description: A different astronomy and space science related image is featured each day, along with a brief explanation.
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