Detection of volatiles undergoing sublimation from 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko coma particles using ROSINA/COPS. II. The nude gauge

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that the COPS nude gauge on Rosetta can detect sublimating icy particles from comet 67P, revealing a correlation with cometary activity and providing size estimates of the particles.

Contribution

It extends previous work by analyzing the second COPS gauge, establishing its ability to detect sublimating particles and correlating detection rates with comet activity and heliocentric distance.

Findings

Detected ~67,000 sublimation features with the nude gauge.

Detection rate inversely correlates with heliocentric distance.

Estimated particle sizes range from 60 to 793 nm.

Abstract

In an earlier study, we reported that the ram gauge of the COmet Pressure Sensor (COPS), one of the three instruments of the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA), could be used to obtain information about the sublimating content of icy particles, made up of volatiles and conceivably refractories coming from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. In this work, we extend the investigation to the second COPS gauge, the nude gauge. In particular, we analyse the volume of the volatile content of coma particles, along with a search for possible dependencies between the nude gauge detection rate (i.e. the rate at which icy particles are detected by the nude gauge) and the position of the Rosetta spacecraft. We also investigate the correlations of the nude gauge detection rate with the quantities associated with cometary activity. Although it was not originally designed for such a purpose, the COPS nude gauge has been able to detect $\sim$67000 features generated by the sublimation of the volatile content of icy particles. The nude gauge detection rate follows a trend that is inversely proportional to the heliocentric distance. This result is interpreted as a confirmation of a possible relation between the nude gauge detection rate and cometary activity. Thus, we compared the former with parameters related to cometary activity and obtained significant correlations, indicating that the frequency of icy particle detection is driven by cometary activity. Furthermore, by representing the volatile part of the icy particles as equivalent spheres with a density of 1 g cm$^{-3}$, we obtained a range of diameters between 60 and 793 nanometres, with the smaller ones ($<390\,\mathrm{nm}$ in diameter) having a size distribution power index of $-4.79\pm 0.26$.