Samples Returned from Comet 81P/Wild 2 by the Stardust Spacecraft: Insights into the Nature of Extended Sources of CN in Cometary Comae

Details Samples Returned from Comet 81P/Wild 2 by the Stardust Spacecraft: Insights into the Nature of Extended Sources of CN in Cometary Comae Samples Returned from Comet 81P/Wild 2 by the Stardust Spacecraft: Insights into the Nature of Extended Sources of CN in Cometary Comae

Oct 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.5304s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #53.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.520

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Some gas phase molecules and molecular fragments identified in the comae of comets show spatial distributions that suggest that they come directly from the nucleus. However, other species show extended spatial distributions that suggest they are daughter products of other, less volatile molecules. For example, the distribution of CN in cometary comae often suggests the presence of an extended source component (see, for example, reference 1). The nature of these extended source(s) remains uncertain. I will summarize the nature of the organics found in samples returned to Earth from Comet 81P/Wild 2 by the Stardust spacecraft (2) and discuss how these materials may bear on this issue. Significant portions of the returned cometary organics are extremely rich in N and the N is present in a multitude of chemical binding states (3). In addition, a significant portion of the organics in the Stardust samples show much higher levels of volatility and are more labile than the organics associated with meteorites. The poster will consider the possibility that organics of this type are responsible for the extended source(s) of cometary CN.
(1) J. J. Klavetter, M. F. A'Hearn, Icarus 107, 322-334 (1994).
(2) D. E. Brownlee, et al. Science 87, 1711-1715 (2006).
(3) S. A. Sandford, et al., Science 87, 1720-1724 (2006).

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