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Article Dans Une Revue Nature Astronomy Année : 2022

Dual storage and release of molecular oxygen in comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Résumé

One of the biggest surprises of the Rosetta mission was the detection of O-2 in the coma of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in remarkably high abundances. The measured levels of O-2 in the coma are generally assumed to reflect the overall abundance and chemical origin of cometary O-2 in the nucleus. Along with its strong association with H2O and weak association with CO and CO2, these measurements led to the consensus that the source and release of cometary O-2 are linked to H2O. We analysed ROSINA observations and found a previously unrecognized change in the correlations of O-2 with H2O, CO2 and CO that contradicts the prevailing notion that the release of O-2 is linked to H2O at all times. These findings can be explained by the presence of two distinct reservoirs of O-2: a pristine source in the deeper nucleus layers dating back to before nucleus formation, and an H2O-trapped secondary reservoir formed during the thermal evolution of the nucleus. These results imply that O-2 must have been incorporated into the nucleus in a solid and distinct phase during accretion in significantly lower abundances than previously assumed. Seasonal changes in the correlation between O-2 and H2O in comet 67P's coma are indicative of two reservoirs of molecular oxygen in the nucleus, a deeper primordial one and a surficial one, suggesting that the observed high abundance of O-2 and its association with H2O are not reflective of the original accretion source.
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hal-03629976 , version 1 (09-05-2022)

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Adrienn Luspay-Kuti, Olivier Mousis, Francoise Pauzat, Ozge Ozgurel, Yves Ellinger, et al.. Dual storage and release of molecular oxygen in comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Nature Astronomy, 2022, ⟨10.1038/s41550-022-01614-1⟩. ⟨hal-03629976⟩
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