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The microphysical structure of the lunar regolith provides information on the geologic history of the Moon. We used remote sensing measurements of thermal emission and a thermophysical model to determine the microphysical properties of the lunar regolith. We expand upon previous investigations by developing a microphysical thermal model, which more directly simulates regolith properties, such as grain size and volume filling factor. The modeled temperatures are matched with surface temperatures measured by the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment on board the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The maria and highlands are investigated separately and characterized in the model by a difference in albedo and grain density. We find similar regolith temperatures for both terrains, which can be well described by similar volume filling factor profiles and mean grain sizes obtained from returned Apollo samples. We also investigate a significantly lower thermal conductivity for highlands, which formally also gives a very good solution, but in a parameter range that is well outside the Apollo data. We then study the latitudinal dependence of regolith properties up to ±80° latitude. When assuming constant regolith properties, we find that a variation of the solar incidence-dependent albedo can reduce the initially observed latitudinal gradient between model and Diviner measurements significantly. A better match between measurements and model can be achieved by a variation in intrinsic regolith properties with a decrease in bulk density with increasing latitude. We find that a variation in grain size alone cannot explain the Diviner measurements at higher latitudes.
Regolith is formed through weathering of the local rock by meteorite bombardment, space weathering (Pieters & Noble, 2016) and thermal erosion (Delbo et al., 2014). In the case of the Moon, the space weathering effects and diurnal temperature variations are reduced towards the poles. The aim of this study is to investigate whether the lunar regolith properties derived from the comparison of regolith temperatures measured by the Diviner radiometer (Paige et al., 2010) on board the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) with simulated temperatures derived from a microphysical thermal model show a latitudinal dependence. The developed microphysical thermal model expands upon previous models by more directly simulating regolith properties, such as grain radius and volume filling factor.
From August 2014 to September 2016, the ESA operated the Rosetta spacecraft mission alongside with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P). The mission provided valuable long-term data on the comet’s nucleus, including its volume, mass, tensor of inertia, spatial position of the orbital trajectory, and rotational state.
During the apparition of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P/C-G) solar irradiation causes varying rates for sublimation of volatile species from the cometary nucleus. Because sublimation processes take place close to the cometary surface, the relative abundance of volatiles in the coma and the ice composition are related to each other. To quantify this relation we assume a model for the expansion of a collisionless gas from the surface into the surrounding space. We use an inverse model approach to relate the in situ measurements of gas densities from the two Rosetta instruments COPS (COmet Pressure Sensor) and DFMS (Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer) at the positions of the spacecraft to the locations of surface gas emissions during the Rosetta mission 2014-2016. We assume the temporally integrated gas emissions to be representative for the ice composition close to the surface. Our analysis shows characteristic differences in the ice compositions between both hemispheres of 67P/C-G. In particular CO2 ice has a reduced abundance on the northern hemisphere. In contrast to the hemispherical differences, the two lobes do not show significant differences in terms of their ice composition.
The Moon as our nearest celestial object is one of the most important bodies for space resource exploration and planetary science. However, knowledge of the physical properties of the lunar regolith is required for the exploitation of lunar resources and for understanding the Moon's geologic history. This knowledge comes mainly from Apollo in-situ experiments and returned samples, but the global distribution of these properties is still poorly understood. Remote sensing measurements offer the opportunity to derive properties of unsampled areas with the help of models.
In our study, a microphysical thermal model for the lunar regolith was developed and the simulated surface temperatures were compared with thermal emission measurements from the Diviner radiometer on board the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to derive regolith properties. This work expands upon previous investigations of lunar regolith properties using Diviner data, by more directly simulating physical properties such as particle size and porosity.
The Rosetta mission to comet 67P/C-G provided a detailed view of the near nucleus environment of an active Jupiter family comet. The continuous monitoring of the gas pressure with the ROSINA experiment at the location of the Rosetta spacecraft in combination with the images of the dust environment acquired by the OSIRIS cameras allows one to test different hypotheses about the origin of the dust and gas emissions. In addition the orbital elements and the rotation axis and spin rate of the nucleus are affected by the gas release.
The relation between ice composition in the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on the one hand and relative abundances of volatiles in the coma on the other hand is important for the interpretation of density measurements in the environment of the cometary nucleus. For the 2015 apparition, in situ measurements from the two ROSINA (Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis) sensors COPS (COmet Pressure Sensor) and DFMS (Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer) determined gas densities at the spacecraft position for the 14 gas species H2O, CO2, CO, H2S, O2, C2H6, CH3OH, H2CO, CH4, NH3, HCN, C2H5OH, OCS, and CS2. We derive the spatial distribution of the gas emissions on the complex shape of the nucleus separately for 50 subintervals of the two-year mission time. The most active patches of gas emission are identified on the surface. We retrieve the relation between solar irradiation and observed emissions from these patches. The emission rates are compared to a minimal thermophysical model to infer the surface active fraction of H2O and CO2. We obtain characteristic differences in the ice composition close to the surface between the two hemispheres with a reduced abundance of CO2 ice on the northern hemisphere (locations with positive latitude). We do not see significant differences for the ice composition on the two lobes of 67P/C-G.
Matching the activity of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko with long-term ground-based astrometry
(2021)
50 years of astrometric data for comet 67P/C-G (orbital period about 6.45 years) provides a unique opportunity to benchmark non-gravitational acceleration models to the in situ measurements of the volatile release performed from the Rosetta rendezvous mission (2014-2016). Taken together, the Earth-bound and in-situ data yields lower fit errors and serves as a test-case for our ability to deduce thermophysical quantities of cometary nuclei from the Earth-bound observations.
Context. Cometary outgassing is induced by the sublimation of ices and the ejection of dust originating from the nucleus. Therefore measuring the composition and dynamics of the cometary gas provides information concerning the interior composition of the body. Nevertheless, the bulk composition differs from the coma composition, and numerical models are required to simulate the main physical processes induced by the illumination of the icy body.
Aims. The objectives of this study are to bring new constraints on the interior composition of the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (hereafter 67P) by comparing the results of a thermophysical model applied to the nucleus of 67P and the coma measurements made by the Reflectron-type Time-Of-Flight (RTOF) mass spectrometer. This last is one of the three instruments of the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA), used during the Rosetta mission.
Methods. Using a thermophysical model of the comet nucleus, we studied the evolution of the stratigraphy (position of the sublimation and crystallisation fronts), the temperature of the surface and subsurface, and the dynamics and spatial distribution of the volatiles (H2O, CO2 and CO). We compared them with the in situ measurements from ROSINA/RTOF and an inverse coma model.
Results. We observed the evolution of the surface and near surface temperature, and the deepening of sublimation fronts. The thickness of the dust layer covering the surface strongly influences the H2O outgassing but not the more volatiles species. The CO outgassing is highly sensitive to the initial CO/H2O ratio, as well as to the presence of trapped CO in the amorphous ice.
Conclusions. The study of the influence of the initial parameters on the computed volatile fluxes and the comparison with ROSINA/RTOF measurements provide a range of values for an initial dust mantle thickness and a range of values for the volatile ratio. These imply the presence of trapped CO. Nevertheless, further studies are required to reproduce the strong change of behaviour observed in RTOF measurements between September 2014 and February 2015.
Two-dimensional electronic spectra (2DES) provide unique ways to track the energy transfer dynamics in light-harvesting complexes. The interpretation of the peaks and structures found in experimentally recorded 2DES is often not straightforward, since several processes are imaged simultaneously. The choice of specific pulse polarization sequences helps to disentangle the sometimes convoluted spectra, but brings along other disturbances. We show by detailed theoretical calculations how 2DES of the Fenna-Matthews-Olson complex are affected by rotational and conformational disorder of the chromophores.
Transient capture of electrons in magnetic fields, or: comets in the restricted three-body problem
(2020)
The motion of celestial bodies in astronomy is closely related to the orbits
of electrons encircling an atomic nucleus. Bohr and Sommerfeld presented a
quantization scheme of the classical orbits to analyze the eigenstates of the
hydrogen atom. Here we discuss another close connection of classical
trajectories and quantum mechanical states: the transient dynamics of objects
around a nucleus. In this setup a comet (or an electron) is trapped for a while
in the vicinity of parent object (Jupiter or an atomic nucleus), but eventually
escapes after many revolutions around the center of attraction.
During a two year period between 2014 and 2016 the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P/C-G) has been probed by the Rosetta spacecraft. Density data for 14 gas species was recorded with the COmet Pressure Sensor (COPS) and the Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer (DFMS) being two sensors of the ROSINA instrument. The combination with an inverse gas model yields emission rates on each of 3996 surface elements of a surface shape for the cometary nucleus.
The temporal evolution of gas production, of relative abundances, and peak productions weeks after perihelion are investigated. Solar irradiation and gas production are in a complex relation revealing features differing for gas species, for mission time, and for the hemispheres of the comet. This characterization of gas composition allows one to correlate 67P/C-G to other solar and interstellar comets, their formation conditions and nucleus properties, see [Bodewits D., et al., 2020 Nature Astronomy].
The determination of non-gravitational forces based on precise astrometry is one of the main tools to establish the cometary character of interstellar and solar-system objects. The Rosetta mission to comet 67P/C-G provided the unique opportunity to benchmark Earth-bound estimates of non-gravitational forces with in-situ data. We determine the accuracy of the standard Marsden and Sekanina parametrization of non-gravitational forces with respect to the observed dynamics. Additionally we analyse the rotation-axis changes (orientation and period) of 67P/C-G. This comparison provides a reference case for future cometary missions and sublimation models for non-gravitational forces.
The coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko has been probed by the Rosetta spacecraft and shows a variety of different molecules. The ROSINA COmet Pressure Sensor and the Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer provide in-situ densities for many volatile compounds including the 14 gas species H2O, CO2, CO, H2S, O2, C2H6, CH3OH, H2CO, CH4, NH3, HCN, C2H5OH, OCS, and CS2. We fit the observed densities during the entire comet mission between August 2014 and September 2016 to an inverse coma model. We retrieve surface emissions on a cometary shape with 3996 triangular elements for 50 separated time intervals. For each gas we derive systematic error bounds and report the temporal evolution of the production, peak production, and the time-integrated total production. We discuss the production for the two lobes of the nucleus and for the northern and southern hemispheres. Moreover we provide a comparison of the gas production with the seasonal illumination.
Two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy has become one of the main experimental tools for analyzing the dynamics of excitonic energy transfer in large molecular complexes. Simplified theoretical models are usually employed to extract model parameters from the experimental spectral data. Here we show that computationally expensive but exact theoretical methods encoded into a neural network can be used to extract model parameters and infer structural information such as dipole orientation from two dimensional electronic spectra (2DES) or reversely, to produce 2DES from model parameters. We propose to use machine learning as a tool to predict unknown parameters in the models underlying recorded spectra and as a way to encode computationally expensive numerical methods into efficient prediction tools. We showcase the use of a trained neural network to efficiently compute disordered averaged spectra and demonstrate that disorder averaging has non-trivial effects for polarization controlled 2DES.
Branched Flow
(2019)
In many physical situations involving diverse length scales, waves or rays representing them travel through media characterized by spatially smooth, random, modest refractive index variations. "Primary" diffraction (by individual sub-wavelength features) is absent. Eventually the weak refraction leads to imperfect focal "cusps". Much later, a statistical regime characterized by momentum diffusion is manifested. An important intermediate regime is often overlooked, one that is diffusive only in an ensemble sense. Each realization of the ensemble possesses dramatic ray limit structure that guides the waves (in the same sense that ray optics is used to design lens systems). This structure is a universal phenomenon called branched flow. Many important phenomena develop in this intermediate regime. Here we give examples and some of the physics of this emerging field.
Context. The change of the rotation period and the orientation of the rotation axis of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P/C-G) is deducible from images taken by the scientific imaging instruments on-board the Rosetta mission with high precision. Non gravitational forces are a natural explanation for these data.
Aims. We describe observed changes for the orientation of the rotation axis and the rotation period of 67P/C-G. For these changes we give an explanation based on a sublimation model with a best-fit for the surface active fraction (model P). Torque effects of periodically changing gas emissions on the surface are considered.
Methods. We solve the equation of state for the angular momentum in the inertial and the body- fixed frames and provide an analytic theory of the rotation changes in terms of Fourier coefficients, generally applicable to periodically forced rigid body dynamics.
Results. The torque induced changes of the rotation state constrain the physical properties of the surface, the sublimation rate and the local active fraction of the surface.
Conclusions. We determine a distribution of the local surface active fraction in agreement with the rotation properties, period and orientation, of 67P/C-G. The torque movement confirms that the sublimation increases faster than the insolation towards perihelion. The derived relatively uniform activity pattern is discussed in terms of related surface features.
Cometary activity affects the orbital motion and rotation state due to sublimation induced forces. The availability of precise rotation-axis orientation and position data from the Rosetta mission allows one to accurately determine the outgassing of comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko/67P (67P).
We derive the observed non-gravitational acceleration of 67P directly from the Rosetta spacecraft trajectory. From the non-gravitational acceleration we recover the diurnal outgassing variations and study a possible delay of the sublimation response with respect to the peak solar illumination. This allows us to compare the non-gravitational acceleration of 67P with expectations based on empirical models and common assumptions about the sublimation process.
We use an iterative orbit refinement and Fourier decomposition of the diurnal activity to derive the outgassing induced non-gravitational acceleration. The uncertainties of the data reduction are established by a sensitivity analysis of an ensemble of best-fit orbits for comet 67P.
We find that the Marsden non-gravitational acceleration parameters reproduce part of the non-gravitational acceleration but need to be augmented by an analysis of the nucleus geometry and surface illumination to draw conclusions about the sublimation process on the surface. The non-gravitational acceleration follows closely the subsolar latitude (seasonal illumination), with a small lag angle with respect to local noon around perihelion. The observed minor changes of the rotation axis do not favor forced precession models for the non-gravitational acceleration.
In contrast to the sublimation induced torques, the non-gravitational acceleration does not put strong constraints on localized active areas on the nucleus. We find a close agreement of the orbit deduced non-gravitational acceleration and the water production independently derived from Rosetta in-situ measurement.
Surface localization of gas sources on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko based on DFMS/COPS data
(2019)
We reconstruct the temporal evolution of the source distribution for the four major gas species H2O, CO2, CO, and O2 on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during its 2015 apparition. The analysis applies an inverse coma model and fits to data between August 6th 2014 and September 5th 2016 measured with the Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer (DFMS) of the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) and the COmet Pressure Sensor (COPS). The spatial distribution of gas sources with their temporal variation allows one to construct surface maps for gas emissions and to evaluate integrated productions rates. For all species peak production rates and integrated productions rates per orbit are evaluated separately for the northern and the southern hemisphere. The nine most active emitting areas on the comet’s surface are defined and their correlation to emissions for each of the species is discussed.
Comets display with decreasing solar distance an increased emission of gas and dust particles, leading to the formation of the coma and tail. Spacecraft missions provide insight in the temporal and spatial variations of the dust and gas sources located on the cometary nucleus. For the case of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P/C-G), the long-term obser- vations from the Rosetta mission point to a homogeneous dust emission across the entire illuminated surface. Despite the homogeneous initial dis- tribution, a collimation in jet-like structures becomes visible. We propose that this observation is linked directly to the complex shape of the nucleus and projects concave topographical features into the dust coma. To test this hypothesis, we put forward a gas-dust description of 67P/C-G, where gravitational and gas forces are accurately determined from the surface mesh and the rotation of the nucleus is fully incorporated. The emerging jet-like structures persist for a wide range of gas-dust interactions and show a dust velocity dependent bending.