Rosetta detects 'most wanted molecule': Nitrogen

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – @ParkstBrett

While using remote-sensing technology has revealed a lot of useful information about the universe, it can only do so much and sometimes – you really need to go to a place to learn about it.

The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission was designed to do just that and visiting Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko has led to the first-ever discovery of nitrogen emanating from a comet, according to a new report in the journal Science.

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The comet is believed to have formed in the same part of space as Pluto and Triton, and scientists have been able to detect nitrogen on these planetary bodies. Yet, remote sensing has not been able to find evidence of the life-giving gas coming from comets.

“Because a comet’s water ice can trap only small amounts of it remote sensing as well as in situ analysis were simply not sensitive and precise enough,” explained study author Martin Rubin from the Physics Institute at the University of Bern in Germany.

Are comets the source of water and nitrogen on Earth?

To detect nitrogen, researchers carried out measurements of the comet’s gases with Rosetta’s on-board mass spectrometer called ROSINA.

“ROSINA has the required resolution to distinguish on site molecules with almost identical molecular weights, which is the case for carbon monoxide and molecular nitrogen,” Rubin said.

The study team concluded that Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was most likely formed in an extremely cold area of the Solar System.

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“The amount of molecular nitrogen brought to Earth by comets such 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is small compared to other nitrogen-bearing molecules like ammonia,” said study author Kathrin Altwegg, also from the University of Bern.

The study team noted that their results add to the growing body of evidence that comets like 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko cannot be a major source of both water and nitrogen on Earth. The same team of scientists also recently found that ratio of deuterium to hydrogen in the comet’s water differed from that on Earth.

“Like the origin of our water, the missing molecular nitrogen in comets was another open question raised during the Giotto mission to comet 1P/Halley almost 30 years ago,” Altwegg explained. “It is very satisfying that it can be finally answered now.”

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The ESA team said they will continue to monitor the comet as it approaches the Sun, releasing even more gas and other materials.

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Source: http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1113356519/rosetta-finds-nitrogen-on-comet-for-first-time-ever-032015/