Publication Date:
2015-08-01
Description:
The Philae lander provides a unique opportunity to investigate the internal structure of a comet nucleus, providing information about its formation and evolution in the early solar system. We present Comet Nucleus Sounding Experiment by Radiowave Transmission (CONSERT) measurements of the interior of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. From the propagation time and form of the signals, the upper part of the "head" of 67P is fairly homogeneous on a spatial scale of tens of meters. CONSERT also reduced the size of the uncertainty of Philae's final landing site down to approximately 21 by 34 square meters. The average permittivity is about 1.27, suggesting that this region has a volumetric dust/ice ratio of 0.4 to 2.6 and a porosity of 75 to 85%. The dust component may be comparable to that of carbonaceous chondrites.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kofman, Wlodek -- Herique, Alain -- Barbin, Yves -- Barriot, Jean-Pierre -- Ciarletti, Valerie -- Clifford, Stephen -- Edenhofer, Peter -- Elachi, Charles -- Eyraud, Christelle -- Goutail, Jean-Pierre -- Heggy, Essam -- Jorda, Laurent -- Lasue, Jeremie -- Levasseur-Regourd, Anny-Chantal -- Nielsen, Erling -- Pasquero, Pierre -- Preusker, Frank -- Puget, Pascal -- Plettemeier, Dirk -- Rogez, Yves -- Sierks, Holger -- Statz, Christoph -- Svedhem, Hakan -- Williams, Iwan -- Zine, Sonia -- Van Zyl, Jakob -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jul 31;349(6247):aab0639. doi: 10.1126/science.aab0639.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Universite Grenoble Alpes, IPAG, F-38000 Grenoble, France (2) Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut de Planetologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG), F-38000 Grenoble, France. ; MIO, UM 110, CNRS-Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers (INSU), Universite de Toulon, Aix-Marseille Universite, IRD 83957 La Garde, France. ; Geodesy Observatory of Tahiti BP6570, 98702 Faa'a, Tahiti. ; Universite de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ) (UPSay); Universite Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) (Sorbonne Univ.); CNRS/INSU; Laboratoire Atmospheres, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (LATMOS)-Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace (IPSL), 11 Boulevard d'Alembert, 78280 Guyancourt, France. ; Lunar and Planetary Institute, 3600 Bay Area Boulevard, Houston, TX 77058, USA. ; Ruhr-University of Bochum, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, 44780 Bochum, Germany. ; Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, MS 300-243E, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA. ; Aix-Marseille Universite, CNRS, Centrale Marseille, Institut Fresnel UMR 7249, 13013 Marseille, France. ; Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, MS 300-243E, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA. University of Southern California, Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA. ; Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille Pole de l'Etoile Site de Chateau-Gombert 38, Rue Frederic Joliot-Curie 13388 Marseille, France. ; Universite de Toulouse; UPS-OMP; IRAP; (2) CNRS; IRAP; 9 Avenue Colonel Roche, BP 44 346, F-31028 Toulouse Cedex 4, Toulouse, France. ; UPMC (Sorbonne Univ.); UVSQ (UPSay); CNRS/INSU; LATMOS-IPSL, BC 102, 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France. ; Max-Planck-Institut fur Sonnensystemforschung (MPS), Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 3, 37077 Gottingen, Germany. ; German Aerospace Center (DLR) Rutherfordstrasse 2 12489 Berlin, Germany. ; Technische Universitaet Dresden Helmholtzstrasse 10 D-01069 Dresden, Germany. ; European Space Agency (ESA)/European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) Noordwijk, Netherlands. ; Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26228153" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
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Chemistry and Pharmacology
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Computer Science
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Medicine
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Natural Sciences in General
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Physics
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