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Register a new userIncorporation of a Late-forming Chondrule into Comet Wild 2
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We report the petrology, O isotopic composition, and Al-Mg isotope systematics of a chondrule fragment from the Jupiter-family comet Wild 2, returned to Earth by NASAs Stardust mission. This object shows characteristics of a type II chondrule that formed from an evolved oxygen isotopic reservoir. No evidence for extinct 26Al was found, with (26Al/ 27Al)0 < 3.0 x 10^-6. Assuming homogenous distribution of 26Al in the solar nebula, this particle crystallized at least 3 Myr after the earliest solar system objects--relatively late compared to most chondrules in meteorites. We interpret the presence of this object in a Kuiper Belt body as evidence of late, large-scale transport of small objects between the inner and outer solar nebula. Our observations constrain the formation of Jupiter (a barrier to outward transport if it formed further from the Sun than this cometary chondrule) to be more than 3 Myr after calcium-aluminum-rich inclusionss.
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The high spectral resolution and sensitivity of Herschel/HIFI allows for the detection of multiple rotational water lines and accurate determinations of water production rates in comets. In this letter we present HIFI observations of the fundamental 110-101 (557 GHz) ortho and 111-000 (1113 GHz) para rotational transitions of water in comet 81P/Wild 2 acquired in February 2010. We mapped the extent of the water line emission with five point scans. Line profiles are computed using excitation models which include excitation by collisions with electrons and neutrals and solar infrared radiation. We derive a mean water production rate of $1.0 times 10^{28}$ molecules s$^{-1}$ at a heliocentric distance of 1.61 AU about 20 days before perihelion, in agreement with production rates measured from the ground using observations of the 18-cm OH lines. Furthermore, we constrain the electron density profile and gas kinetic temperature, and estimate the coma expansion velocity by fitting the water line shapes.
Individual particles from comet 81P/Wild 2 collected by NASAs Stardust mission vary in size from small sub-$mu$m fragments found in the walls of the aerogel tracks, to large fragments up to tens of $mu$m in size found towards the termini of tracks. The comet, in an orbit beyond Neptune since its formation, retains an intact a record of early-Solar-System processes that was compromised in asteroidal samples by heating and aqueous alteration. We measured the O isotopic composition of seven Stardust fragments larger than $sim$2 $mu$m extracted from five different Stardust aerogel tracks, and 63 particles smaller than $sim$2 $mu$m from the wall of a Stardust track. The larger particles show a relatively narrow range of O isotopic compositions that is consistent with $^{16}$O-poor phases commonly seen in meteorites. Many of the larger Stardust fragments studied so far have chondrule-like mineralogy which is consistent with formation in the inner Solar System. The fine-grained material shows a very broad range of O isotopic compositions ($-70<Delta^{17}$O$<+60$) suggesting that Wild 2 fines are either primitive outer-nebula dust or a very diverse sampling of inner Solar System compositional reservoirs that accreted along with a large number of inner-Solar-System rocks to form comet Wild 2.
In recent years many models of chondrule formation have been proposed. One of those models is the processing of dust in shock waves in protoplanetary disks. In this model, the dust and the chondrule precursors are overrun by shock waves, which heat them up by frictional heating and thermal exchange with the gas. In this paper we reanalyze the nebular shock model of chondrule formation and focus on the downstream boundary condition. We show that for large-scale plane-parallel chondrule-melting shocks the postshock equilibrium temperature is too high to avoid volatile loss. Even if we include radiative cooling in lateral directions out of the disk plane into our model (thereby breaking strict plane-parallel geometry) we find that for a realistic vertical extent of the solar nebula disk the temperature decline is not fast enough. On the other hand, if we assume that the shock is entirely optically thin so that particles can radiate freely, the cooling rates are too high to produce the observed chondrules textures. Global nebular shocks are therefore problematic as the primary sources of chondrules.
The coma of comet 103P/Hartley 2 has a significant population of large particles observed as point sources in images taken by the Deep Impact spacecraft. We measure their spatial and flux distributions, and attempt to constrain their composition. The flux distribution of these particles implies a very steep size distribution with power-law slopes ranging from -6.6 to -4.7. The radii of the particles extend up to 20 cm, and perhaps up to 2 m, but their exact sizes depend on their unknown light scattering properties. We consider two cases: bright icy material, and dark dusty material. The icy case better describes the particles if water sublimation from the particles causes a significant rocket force, which we propose as the best method to account for the observed spatial distribution. Solar radiation is a plausible alternative, but only if the particles are very low density aggregates. If we treat the particles as mini-nuclei, we estimate they account for <16-80% of the comets total water production rate (within 20.6 km). Dark dusty particles, however, are not favored based on mass arguments. The water production rate from bright icy particles is constrained with an upper limit of 0.1 to 0.5% of the total water production rate of the comet. If indeed icy with a high albedo, these particles do not appear to account for the comets large water production rate. production rate. Erratum: We have corrected the radii and masses of the large particles of comet 103P/Hartley 2 and present revised conclusions in the attached erratum.
The Jupiter-family comet 103P/Hartley 2 (103P) was the target of the NASA EPOXI mission. In support of this mission, we conducted observations from radio to submillimeter wavelengths of comet 103P in the three weeks preceding the spacecraft rendezvous on UT 2010 November 4.58. This time period included the passage at perihelion and the closest approach of the comet to the Earth. Here we report detections of HCN, H2CO, CS, and OH and upper limits for HNC and DCN towards 103P, using the Arizona Radio Observatory Kitt Peak 12m telescope (ARO 12m) and submillimeter telescope (SMT), the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) and the Greenbank Telescope (GBT). The water production rate, QH2O = (0.67 - 1.07) x 10^28 s^-1, was determined from the GBT OH data. From the average abundance ratios of HCN and H2CO relative to water (0.13 +/- 0.03 % and 0.14 +/- 0.03 %, respectively), we conclude that H2CO is depleted and HCN is normal with respect to typically-observed cometary mixing ratios. However, the abundance ratio of HCN with water shows a large diversity with time. Using the JCMT data we measured an upper limit for the DCN/HCN ratio <0.01. Consecutive observations of ortho- H2CO and para-H2CO on November 2 (from data obtained at the JCMT), allowed us to derive an ortho : para ratio (OPR) ~ 2.12 +/- 0.59 (1sigma), corresponding to Tspin > 8 K (2sigma).
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