Volatile exposures on the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko nucleus

Abstract

We present the most extensive catalog of exposures of volatiles on the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko nucleus generated from observations acquired with the OSIRIS cameras on board the Rosetta mission. We identified more than 600 volatile exposures on the comet. Bright spots are found isolated on the nucleus or grouped in clusters, usually at the bottom of cliffs, and most of them are small, typically a few square meters or smaller. Several of them are clearly correlated with the cometary activity. We note a number of peculiar exposures of volatiles with negative spectral slope values in the high-resolution post-perihelion images, which we interpret as the presence of large ice grains ($>$ 1000 $\mu$m) or local frosts condensation. We observe a clear difference both in the spectral slope and in the area distributions of the bright spots pre- and post-perihelion, with these last having lower average spectral slope values and a smaller size, with a median surface of 0.7 m${}^2$, even if the size difference is mainly due to the higher resolution achieved post-perihelion. The minimum duration of the bright spots shows three clusters: an area-independent cluster dominated by short-lifetime frosts; an area-independent cluster with lifetime of 0.5--2 days, probably associated with the seasonal fallout of dehydrated chunks; and an area-dependent cluster with lifetime longer than 2 days consistent with water-driven erosion of the nucleus. Even if numerous bright spots are detected, the total surface of exposed water ice is less than 0.1% of the total 67P nucleus surface, confirming that the 67P surface is dominated by refractory dark terrains, while exposed ice occupies only a tiny fraction. Moreover, the abundance of volatile exposures is six times less in the small lobe than in the big lobe, adding additional evidence to the hypothesis that comet 67P is composed of two distinct bodies.

24 pages, 19 Figures; paper accepted for publication in Astron. and Astrophysics on February 2023

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Optical spectropolarimetry of large C-complex asteroids: polarimetric evidence for heterogeneous surface compositions
• Dynamics and potential origins of decimeter-sized particles around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
• Cliff collapse on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko -- II. Imhotep and Hathor
• An impact-free mechanism to deliver water to terrestrial planets and exoplanets
• Alkali phenoxides in comets