Seasonal variations in source regions of the dust jets on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

I.-L. Lai (1) , W.-H. Ip (2, 1, 3) , J.-C. Lee (4) , Z.-Y. Lin (2) , J.-B. Vincent (5) , N. Oklay (5) , H. Sierks (6) , C. Barbieri (7) , Philippe Lamy (8, 9) , R. Rodrigo (10, 11) , D. Koschny (12) , H. Rickman (13, 14) , H. U. Keller (15) , J. Agarwal (6) , M. A. Barucci (16) , Jean-Loup Bertaux (8) , I. Bertini (17) , Dennis Bodewits (18) , S. Boudreault (6) , Gabriele Cremonese (19) , V. Da Deppo (20) , Björn Davidsson (14) , Stefano Debei (21) , M. de Cecco (22) , Jakob Deller (6) , Sonia Fornasier (16) , Marco Fulle (23) , Olivier Groussin (9) , Pedro J. Gutiérrez (24) , Carsten Güttler (6) , M. Hofmann (6) , Stubbe F. Hviid (5) , Laurent Jorda (9) , Jörg Knollenberg (5) , Gabor Kovacs (6) , Jörg-Rainer Kramm (6) , Ekkehard Kührt (5) , M. Küppers (25) , Luisa Maria Lara (24) , Monica Lazzarin (10) , Josè J. Lopez-Moreno (24) , Francesco Marzari (7) , Giampiero Naletto (17) , X. Shi (6) , Cécilia Tubiana (6) , Nicolas Thomas (26)

1 Institute of Space Science [Taiwan]
2 IANCU - Institute of Astronomy [Taiwan]
3 SSI - Space Science Institute [Macau]
4 Department of Atmospheric Sciences [Taoyuan City]
5 DLR Institut für Planetenforschung
6 MPS - Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung
7 Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia "Galileo Galilei"
8 PLANETO - LATMOS
9 LAM - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille
10 CAB - Centro de Astrobiologia [Madrid]
11 ISSI - International Space Science Institute [Bern]
12 RSSD - Research and Scientific Support Department, ESTEC
13 CBK - Space Research Centre of Polish Academy of Sciences
14 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Uppsala]
15 IGEP - Institut für Geophysik und Extraterrestrische Physik [Braunschweig]
16 LESIA (UMR_8109) - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique
17 CISAS - Centro di Ateneo di Studi e Attività Spaziali “Giuseppe Colombo”
18 Department of Physics [Auburn]
19 OAPD - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova
20 IFN - CNR Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnologies
21 Department of Industrial Engineering [Padova]
22 University of Trento [Trento]
23 OAT - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste
24 IAA - Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía
25 ESAC - European Space Astronomy Centre
26 Physikalisches Institut [Bern]

We investigate the surface distribution of the source regions of dust jets on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as a function of time. Methods. The dust jet source regions were traced by the comprehensive imaging data set provided by the OSIRIS scientific camera. We show in detail how the projected footpoints of the dust jets and hence the outgassing zone would move in consonance with the sunlit belt. Furthermore, a number of source regions characterized by repeated jet activity might be the result of local topographical variations or compositional heterogeneities. The spatial and temporal variations in source regions of the dust jets are influenced significantly by the seasonal effect. The strong dependence on the solar zenith angle and local time could be related to the gas sublimation process driven by solar insolation on a surface layer of low thermal inertia.

Domains: Physics [physics]; Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Astrophysics [astro-ph]

I.-L. Lai, W.-H. Ip, J.-C. Lee, Z.-Y. Lin, J.-B. Vincent, et al.. Seasonal variations in source regions of the dust jets on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Astronomy and Astrophysics - A&A, 2019, 630, A17 (10 p.). ⟨10.1051/0004-6361/201732094⟩. ⟨insu-01915612⟩