Friday, September 5, 2014

Surprise by darkness and the absence of ice in the comet … – La Voz de Galicia

A NASA instrument aboard the European Rosetta orbiter has begun to subside comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko scientific data . The equipment, called Alice, to map the surface began last month, recording the first spectrum of the near ultraviolet light from the surface of the comet. From the data, it was found that the comet is unusually dark -rather than coal when viewed in ultraviolet wavelengths. Alice also detected hydrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere coma or comet.

It was also found that the surface of Rosetta comet does not show large patches of ice water. The team expected to see them, because the comet is too far to the heat of the sun to convert the water to steam. “We are a bit surprised by the low reflectivity of the surface of the comet and little evidence of water ice exposed,” said Alan Stern, principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

Alice is investigating the origin, composition and operation of comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko , to gather evidence of high resolution can not be obtained by observation from Earth or in Earth orbit . It has more than 1,000 times the capacity of data collection instruments launched into space a generation ago, but only weighs 4 kilos and has 4 watts of power.



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