AI Article Synopsis
- * Researchers used the Rosetta spacecraft to measure argon levels in comet 67P, identifying the isotope (36)Ar and its ratio with (38)Ar, providing insights into the comet's water content.
- * The findings suggest that comets of this type are unlikely to be the primary source of Earth's major volatile components, as their argon to water ratio indicates a limited contribution.
Article Abstract
Comets have been considered to be representative of icy planetesimals that may have contributed a significant fraction of the volatile inventory of the terrestrial planets. For example, comets must have brought some water to Earth. However, the magnitude of their contribution is still debated. We report the detection of argon and its relation to the water abundance in the Jupiter family comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by in situ measurement of the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) mass spectrometer aboard the Rosetta spacecraft. Despite the very low intensity of the signal, argon is clearly identified by the exact determination of the mass of the isotope (36)Ar and by the (36)Ar/(38)Ar ratio. Because of time variability and spatial heterogeneity of the coma, only a range of the relative abundance of argon to water can be given. Nevertheless, this range confirms that comets of the type 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko cannot be the major source of Earth's major volatiles.
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|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4643765 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1500377 | DOI Listing |
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