Tchouri: oxygen in abundance in the atmosphere of the comet – L’Express

“It’s a surprise” total. The European probe Rosetta discovered oxygen in abundance in the atmosphere of the comet “Tchouri”. A discovery that could force scientists to rethink the models on the formation of the solar system. This molecular oxygen (O2) may be older than our solar system, which dates back to 4.6 billion, according to a study published Wednesday in the British journal Nature (link in English).

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“This is the most surprising discovery made so far around comet “67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko, escorted by fifteen months Rosetta, said Kathrin Altwegg, University of Bern (Switzerland), one of the study authors.

“I detected molecular oxygen,” tweeted the official account of Twitter Rosetta mission, accompanying the message from several computer graphics related to discovery.

This is the first time found the oxygen-more commonly known molecularly oxygen in a comet, even though it has been detected in other icy celestial bodies such as moons of Jupiter and Saturn.

Rethinking models on the formation of the solar system?

“He will perhaps have to change our current models on the formation of the solar system, because right now, they do not provide for the presence of molecular oxygen in a comet,” said Andre Bieler, the University of Michigan (USA), co-author of the study.

The surface of the Tchouri comet, taken by the Philae robot.

ESA

Rosina spectrometer, one of the key instruments of the Rosetta mission has performed measurements of gases between September 2014 and March 2015 while the 67P comet approached the sun.

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Rosina found nearly 4% molecular oxygen (relative to water vapor H2O) in the cloud that forms the tail of the comet, the study found. This rate remained stable over the months. This makes the fourth oxygen cometary gas, in size, after the water vapor (H2O), carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.