Chlorine-bearing species and the 37Cl/35Cl isotope ratio in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov

Chlorine-bearing species and the 37Cl/35Cl isotope ratio in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko

Published:2021-06-24 Issue:1 Volume:508 Page:1020-1032
ISSN:0035-8711
Container-title:Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
language:en
Short-container-title:

Author:

Dhooghe Frederik¹^ORCID,De Keyser Johan¹²^ORCID,Hänni Nora³^ORCID,Altwegg Kathrin³⁴^ORCID,Cessateur Gaël¹^ORCID,Jehin Emmanuel⁵^ORCID,Maggiolo Romain¹^ORCID,Rubin Martin³^ORCID,Wurz Peter³⁴^ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, BIRA-IASB, Ringlaan 3, B-1180 Brussels, Belgium

2. Center for Mathematical Plasma Astrophysics, KULeuven, Celestijnenlaan 200B, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium

3. Physikalisches Institut, University of Bern, Sidlerstr 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland

4. Center for Space and Habitability, University of Bern, Sidlerstr 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland

5. STAR Institute, University of Liège, Allée du 6 Août 19C, B-4000 Liège, Belgium

Abstract

ABSTRACT A full-mission analysis has been conducted of Cl-bearing species in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko as detected by the Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer (DFMS) of Rosetta's ROSINA instrument. The isotope ratio of the two stable chlorine isotopes 37Cl/35Cl is found to be 0.336 ± 0.017, to be compared with the standard mean ocean chloride value of 0.320. The isotope ratio does not change appreciably throughout the mission. The Cl-bearing species fingerprint in DFMS indicates that there is at least one additional chlorine-bearing species in the coma next to HCl, CH3Cl, and NH4Cl. The identity of this volatile or semivolatile species is unknown at this time.

Funder

Belgian Science Policy Office

Swiss National Science Foundation

European Space Agency

ESA

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Subject

Space and Planetary Science,Astronomy and Astrophysics

Link

http://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/mnras/stab1732/38820063/stab1732.pdf

Reference52 articles.