P33E-05
Coma dust environment observed by GIADA during the Perihelion of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Wednesday, 16 December 2015: 14:40
3014 (Moscone West)
Alessandra Rotundi1,2, Vincenzo Della Corte2, Marco Fulle3, Marco Ferrari2, Stavro Lambrov Ivanovski4, Roberto Sordini2, Elena Mazzotta Epifani5, Pasquale Palumbo1, Luigi Colangeli6, Jose J Lopez-Moreno7, Julio Rodriguez7, Vladimir Zakharov8,9, Ezio Bussoletti1, Jean-Francois Crifo9, Francesca Esposito10, Simon Green11, Eberhard Gruen12, Philippe L Lamy13, Tony McDonnell11,14, Vito Mennella10, Antonio Molina15, Fernando Moreno7, Jose L Ortiz7, Ernesto Palomba2, Jean-Marie Perrin16, Rafael Rodrigo7, Paul R Weissman17, John Zarnecki18, Massimo Cosi19, Frank Giovane20, Bo Gustafson21, Miguel Herranz7, José M Jeronimo7, Mark Leese11, Antonio Lopez-Jimenez7 and Rafael Morales7, (1)Parthenope University of Naples, Scienze e Tecnologie, Naples, Italy, (2)IAPS-INAF, Rome, Italy, (3)INAF - OAT, Trieste, Italy, (4)Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology, Rome, Italy, (5)INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Rome, Italy, (6)ESA-ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands, (7)IAA-CSIC, Granada, Spain, (8)LESIA, Paris Observatory Meudon, Paris, France, (9)LATMOS, CNRS, Guyancourt, France, (10)INAF, OAC, Naples, Italy, (11)Open University, PSSRI, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom, (12)Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg, Germany, (13)Astrophysics Laboratory of Marseilles, Marseilles, France, (14)Unispace Kent, Kent, United Kingdom, (15)Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain, (16)Observatoire de Haute Provence,, Saint Michel l’Observatoire, France, (17)Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ, United States, (18)International Space Science Institute, Bern, Switzerland, (19)Selex-ES, Firenze, Italy, (20)NRI, Washington, United States, (21)University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States
Abstract:
GIADA (Grain Impact Analyzer and Dust Accumulator) is an in-situ instrument mounted onboard Rosetta monitoring the dust environment of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. GIADA is composed of 3 sub-systems: 1) the Grain Detection System, based on particle detection through light scattering; 2) the Impact Sensor, giving momentum measurement; 3) the Micro-Balances System, constituted of 5 quartz crystal microbalances, giving cumulative deposited dust. The combination of the measurements performed by these 3 subsystems provides: the number, the mass, the momentum and the speed distribution of dust particles emitted from the comet nucleus. We will present the coma dust environment as observed by GIADA during the perihelion phase of the Rosetta space mission. Despite the large distance from the nucleus, more than 200 km, GIADA was able to detect temporal and spatial variation of dust density distribution. Specific high dust spatial density sectors of the coma have been identified and their evolution during the perihelion phase was studied.

Acknowledgements. GIADA was built by a consortium led by the Univ. Napoli “Parthenope” & INAF- Oss. Astr. Capodimonte, IT, in collaboration with the Inst. de Astrofisica de Andalucia, ES, Selex-ES s.p.a. and SENER. GIADA is presently managed & operated by Ist. di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali-INAF, IT. GIADA was funded and managed by the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, IT, with a support of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science MEC, ES. GIADA was developped from a PI proposal supported by the University of Kent; sci. & tech. contribution given by CISAS, IT, Lab. d'Astr. Spat., FR, and Institutions from UK, IT, FR, DE and USA. We thank the RSGS/ESAC, RMOC/ESOC & Rosetta Project/ESTEC for their outstanding work. Science support provided by NASA through the US Rosetta Project managed by JPL/California Institute of Technology. GIADA calibrated data will be available through the ESA’s PSA web site.

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