COSAC prepares for sampling and in situ analysis of cometary matter from comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko

Goesmann, Fred; Raulin, F.; Bredehöft, Jan Hendrik; Cabane, Michel; Ehrenfreund, P.; MacDermott, A. J.; McKenna‐Lawlor, S.; Meierhenrich, Uwe J.; Muñoz, G. M.; Szopa, Cyril; Sternberg, R.; Roll, R.; Thiemann, Wolfram; Ulamec, Stephan

doi:10.1016/j.pss.2014.08.006

Cited by 24 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 105 publications

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“…Now that Rosetta has reached comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P/C-G), research is on course to probe the cometary surface to unlock this icy treasure chest. Rosetta's lander Philae detached from the Rosetta orbiter in November 2014 is equipped with the cometary sampling and composition instrument COSAC (Goesmann et al 2007;Goesmann et al 2014). COSAC uses eight parallel capillary columns with different stationary phases coupled to a time-of-flight mass spectrometer to analyze organic molecules in situ in the ices of the nucleus of comet 67P/C-G. Rosetta is the first space mission ever that is equipped with a chirality evaluation device.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anisotropy-Guided Enantiomeric Enhancement in AlanineUsing Far-UV Circularly Polarized Light

Meinert

Cassam-Chenaı̈

Jones

et al. 2015

Orig Life Evol Biosph

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All life on Earth is characterized by its asymmetry - both the genetic material and proteins are composed of homochiral monomers. Understanding how this molecular asymmetry initially arose is a key question related to the origins of life. Cometary ice simulations, L-enantiomeric enriched amino acids in meteorites and the detection of circularly polarized electromagnetic radiation in star-forming regions point to a possible interstellar/protostellar generation of stereochemical asymmetry. Based upon our recently recorded anisotropy spectra g(λ) of amino acids in the vacuum-UV range, we subjected amorphous films of racemic (13)C-alanine to far-UV circularly polarized synchrotron radiation to probe the asymmetric photon-molecule interaction under interstellar conditions. Optical purities of up to 4% were reached, which correlate with our theoretical predictions. Importantly, we show that chiral symmetry breaking using circularly polarized light is dependent on both the helicity and the wavelength of incident light. In order to predict such stereocontrol, time-dependent density functional theory was used to calculate anisotropy spectra. The calculated anisotropy spectra show good agreement with the experimental ones. The European Space Agency's Rosetta mission, which successfully landed Philae on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 12 November 2014, will investigate the configuration of chiral compounds and thereby obtain data that are to be interpreted in the context of the results presented here.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anisotropy-Guided Enantiomeric Enhancement in AlanineUsing Far-UV Circularly Polarized Light

Meinert

Cassam-Chenaı̈

Jones

et al. 2015

Orig Life Evol Biosph

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“…One of the main reasons leading to the proposal and development of a lander for Rosetta, was the aim of analysing (quasi-)pristine material from the comet surface and sub-surface (Ulamec et al 1997;Wittmann et al 1999;Biele and Ulamec 2008). The payload of Phi-lae included four instruments, dedicated to this aim: APXS (an alpha-particle fluorescence spectrometer, Klingelhöfer et al 2007), two evolved gas analysers (EGA's), COSAC and Ptolemy, each including a mass spectrometer and a gas-chromatograph (Goesmann et al 2007(Goesmann et al , 2014Wright et al 2007), and SD 2 , a drill and sampling device, to feed the ovens of the EGA's (Ercoli-Finzi et al 2007). The camera system CIVA included a visible and IR microscope (CIVA-M), intended to image the sampled material in dedicated ovens with windows ).…”

Section: Surface Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards New Comet Missions

et al. 2019

Self Cite

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The Rosetta observations have greatly advanced our knowledge of the cometary nucleus and its immediate environment. However, constraints on the mission (both planned and unplanned), the only partially successful Philae lander, and other instrumental issues have inevitably resulted in open questions. Surprising results from the many successful Rosetta observations have also opened new questions, unimagined when Rosetta was first planned. We discuss these and introduce several mission concepts that might address these issues. It is apparent that a sample return mission as originally conceived in the 1980s during the genesis of Rosetta would provide many answers but it is arguable whether it is technically feasible even with today's technology and knowledge. Less ambitious mission concepts are described to address the suggested main outstanding scientific goals.

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“…The most abundant volatile species in comets are H 2 O and CO 2 , the latter as high as B30% (relative to water) based on a recent survey of 18 comets using the Japanese infrared satellite AKARI. 23 Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) is a coenzyme ubiquitous in modern cells, and thought to be ancient in origin since many coenzymes share a ribonucleotidyl group despite having dissimilar roles. 18 Thus, the results from our studies of pyridine in CO 2 -rich water ices may also suggest that cometary nuclei could contain a rich array of hydroxypyridines and pyridine carboxylic acids.…”

Section: View Article Onlinementioning

confidence: 99%

Metabolic precursors in astrophysical ice analogs: implications for meteorites and comets

2015

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COSAC prepares for sampling and in situ analysis of cometary matter from comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko

Cited by 24 publications

References 105 publications

Anisotropy-Guided Enantiomeric Enhancement in AlanineUsing Far-UV Circularly Polarized Light

Anisotropy-Guided Enantiomeric Enhancement in AlanineUsing Far-UV Circularly Polarized Light

Towards New Comet Missions

Metabolic precursors in astrophysical ice analogs: implications for meteorites and comets

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