Rosetta
Posted inAway Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Exploration Gear & Tech, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Meteorites & Asteroids, Microgravity, Missions & Hardware, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Sample Return, Status Report

Offworld Science Droids: A Review Maps Key Technologies For Small-body Sampling Robots

by Keith Cowing

Unlike planetary rovers operating on the Moon or Mars, robots working on asteroids and comets must interact with surfaces where gravity is extremely weak, terrain is highly irregular, and material […]

Posted inAstrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Isotopic Signature of Organic Molecules from Beyond the Solar System: An Enriched Methane D/H Ratio in the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS

by Keith Cowing

Interstellar objects are interlopers from other planetary systems, and their volatile compositions provide a glimpse into planet formation around their host star. We present near-infrared spectra of the coma of […]

Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Cubesats and smallsats, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Orbital Recon: Use Of AI to Make Earth-Observing Satellites Smarter

by Keith Cowing

Editor’s note: for more than half a century we have been learning how to use the viewpoint from space to study our home world. The instruments we have developed often […]

Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Recent Chemo-morphological Coma Evolution of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

by Keith Cowing

We present VLT/MUSE observations of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during its 2021 perihelion passage, from which we generated simultaneous maps of dust, [OI], C2, NH2, and CN comae across 12 pre- and […]

Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

The Refractory-to-ice ratio in Comet 67P: Implications on the Composition of the Comet-forming Region of the Protoplanetary Disk

by Keith Cowing

Comets, asteroids, and other small bodies are thought to be remnants of the original planetesimal population of the Solar System. As such, their physical, chemical, and isotopic properties hold crucial […]

Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Evidence For Abiotic Dimethyl Sulfide In Cometary Matter

by Keith Cowing

Technological progress related to astronomical observatories such as the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) allows searching for signs of life beyond our Solar System, namely in the form […]

Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Meteorites & Asteroids, Status Report

A Broad Set of Solar and Cosmochemical Data Indicates High C-N-O Abundances For Our Solar System

by Keith Cowing

We examine the role of refractory organics as a major C carrier in the outer protosolar nebula and its implications for the compositions of large Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) and […]

Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Varying Water Activity and Momentum Transfer on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko From its non-gravitational Forces and Torques

by Keith Cowing

We investigate the ability of a simultaneous fitting of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko’s non-gravitational forces, torques and total water-outgassing rate, as observed by Rosetta, to constrain complex thermophysical models of cometary material.

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