First Results of 67P’s Water Composition Find It Different to Earth’s Oceans

b0g · #1 ● 12-10-2014, 03:03 PM

first results of 67P’s water composition find it different to Earth’s oceans

Title First measurements of comet’s water ratio
Released 10/12/2014 8:00 pm
Copyright Spacecraft: ESA/ATG medialab; Comet: ESA/Rosetta/NavCam; Data: Altwegg et al. 2014 and references therein
Description

Rosetta’s measurement of the deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio (D/H) measured in the water vapour around Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The measurements were made using ROSINA’s DFMS double focusing mass spectrometer between 8 August and 5 September 2014.

Deuterium is an isotope of hydrogen with an added neutron. The ratio of deuterium to hydrogen in water is a key diagnostic to determining where in the Solar System an object originated and in what proportion asteroids and/or comets contributed to Earth’s oceans.

The graph displays the different values of D/H in water observed in various bodies in the Solar System. The data points are grouped by colour as planets and moons (blue), chondritic meteorites from the Asteroid Belt (grey), comets originating from the Oort cloud (purple) and Jupiter family comets (pink). Rosetta’s Jupiter-family comet is highlighted in yellow. Diamonds represent data obtained in situ; circles represent data obtained by astronomical methods. The lower part of the graph shows the value of D/H measured in molecular hydrogen in the atmosphere of the giant planets of the Solar System (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) and an estimate of the typical value in molecular hydrogen for the protosolar nebula, from which all objects in our Solar System formed.

The ratio for Earth’s oceans is 1.56 ×10–4 (shown as the blue horizontal line in the upper part of the graph). The value for Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko is found to be 5.3 x 10–4, more than three times greater than for Earth’s oceans. The discovery fuels the debate on the origin of Earth’s oceans and whether asteroids or comets played the bigger role in delivering water.

Full story: Rosetta fuels debate on origin of Earth’s oceans
Id 331128

http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Ima..._s_water_ratio

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Sp...Earth_s_oceans

deanmine · #2 ● 12-11-2014, 02:32 PM

their the "seeds" to the oasis that clump together in the deserts of space

spudigitti · #3 ● 12-11-2014, 04:43 PM

Good to know anyway maybe it means there Is life somewhere else based on different elements...

b0g · #4 ● 12-13-2014, 06:51 AM

Colour_image_of_comet
A colour image of Comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko composed of three images taken by Rosetta's scientific imaging system OSIRIS in the red, green and blue filters

source: ESA and all credits to ESA

deanmine · #5 ● 02-17-2015, 02:41 PM

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko's amazing jets can be seen from a distance in this image taken by the Rosetta spacecraft on Feb. 6, 2015.

spin this around and look at the profile... its a strange lookin head