Cometary Dust Trail Associated with Rosetta Mission Target: 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

TL;DR

This study definitively identifies and characterizes the dust trail and neckline structure of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, estimating dust grain sizes and assessing the comet's activity over multiple apparitions.

Contribution

It provides the first definitive identification of the dust trail and neckline structure of 67P and estimates dust grain sizes and mass-loss rates over time.

Findings

Dust trail observed consistently from 2002 to 2003

Maximum dust grain size approximately 1 cm

Comet's activity remained stable over a dozen years

Abstract

A thin, bright dust cloud, which is associated with the Rosetta mission target object (67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko), was observed after the 2002 perihelion passage. The neckline structure or dust trail nature of this cloud is controversial. In this paper, we definitively identify the dust trail and the neckline structure using a wide-field CCD camera attached to the Kiso 1.05-m Schmidt telescope. The dust trail of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was evident as scattered sunlight in all images taken between September 9, 2002 and February 1, 2003, whereas the neckline structure became obvious only after late 2002. We compared our images with a semi-analytical dynamic model of dust grains emitted from the nucleus. A fading of the surface brightness of the dust trail near the nucleus enabled us to determine the typical maximum size of the grains. Assuming spherical compact particles with a mass density of 103 kg m-3 and an albedo of 0.04, we deduced that the maximum diameter of the dust particles was approximately 1 cm. We found that the mass-loss rate of the comet at the perihelion was 180 +/- 50 kg s-1 on or before the 1996 apparition, while the mass-loss rate averaged over the orbit reached 20 +/- 6 kg s-1. The result is consistent with the studies of the dust cloud emitted in the 2002/2003 return. Therefore, we can infer that the activity of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko has showed no major change over the past dozen years or so, and the largest grains are cyclically injected into the dust tube lying along the cometary orbit.