Publication Date:
2015-08-01
Description:
Thermal and mechanical material properties determine comet evolution and even solar system formation because comets are considered remnant volatile-rich planetesimals. Using data from the Multipurpose Sensors for Surface and Sub-Surface Science (MUPUS) instrument package gathered at the Philae landing site Abydos on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, we found the diurnal temperature to vary between 90 and 130 K. The surface emissivity was 0.97, and the local thermal inertia was 85 +/- 35 J m(-2) K(-1)s(-1/2). The MUPUS thermal probe did not fully penetrate the near-surface layers, suggesting a local resistance of the ground to penetration of 〉4 megapascals, equivalent to 〉2 megapascal uniaxial compressive strength. A sintered near-surface microporous dust-ice layer with a porosity of 30 to 65% is consistent with the data.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Spohn, T -- Knollenberg, J -- Ball, A J -- Banaszkiewicz, M -- Benkhoff, J -- Grott, M -- Grygorczuk, J -- Huttig, C -- Hagermann, A -- Kargl, G -- Kaufmann, E -- Komle, N -- Kuhrt, E -- Kossacki, K J -- Marczewski, W -- Pelivan, I -- Schrodter, R -- Seiferlin, K -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jul 31;349(6247):aab0464. doi: 10.1126/science.aab0464.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Institute of Planetary Research, Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Berlin, Germany. tilman.spohn@dlr.de. ; Institute of Planetary Research, Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Berlin, Germany. ; European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), European Space Agency (ESA), Noordwijk, Netherlands. ; Space Research Center, Warsaw, Poland. ; Department of Physical Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK. ; Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences Graz, Austria. ; Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland. ; Physics Institute, University of Berne, Berne, Switzerland.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26228152" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
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Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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