The dust environment of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Abstract

The new target of the ESA Rosetta Mission is comet 67P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko, which passed its last perihelion on 18 August 2002 and was well observed from fall 2002 to spring 2003. Its most prominent feature was a thin dust tail, which is best fitted by the Neck-Line model. Fits of the whole tail provide the dust environment of 67P during a year around perihelion; it shows a strong asymmetry between pre and post perihelion times. The dust mass loss rate appears constant since 2 AU before perihelion at about 200 kg s-1, a factor 100 higher than 46P/Wirtanen, the previous Rosetta target. Neck-Line photometry during 2002 and 2003 suggests that such a dust environment has remained similar since 3.6 AU before perihelion, i.e. the distance at which Rosetta science operations will start and the lander will be delivered to the surface.