MOLECULAR OXYGEN IN OORT CLOUD COMET 1P/HALLEY
- Physikalisches Institut, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern (Switzerland)
- Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden (Netherlands)
- ESA (retired) Science Operations Department, ESTEC, Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ Noordwijk (Netherlands)
Recently, the ROSINA mass spectrometer suite on board the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft discovered an abundant amount of molecular oxygen, O{sub 2}, in the coma of Jupiter family comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko of O{sub 2}/H{sub 2}O = 3.80 ± 0.85%. It could be shown that O{sub 2} is indeed a parent species and that the derived abundances point to a primordial origin. Crucial questions are whether the O{sub 2} abundance is peculiar to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko or Jupiter family comets in general, and also whether Oort cloud comets such as comet 1P/Halley contain similar amounts of molecular oxygen. We investigated mass spectra obtained by the Neutral Mass Spectrometer instrument during the flyby by the European Space Agency's Giotto probe of comet 1P/Halley. Our investigation indicates that a production rate of O{sub 2} of 3.7 ± 1.7% with respect to water is indeed compatible with the obtained Halley data and therefore that O{sub 2} might be a rather common and abundant parent species.
- OSTI ID:
- 22518662
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 815, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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