Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Apr 1993
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1993natur.362..732m&link_type=abstract
Nature (ISSN 0028-0836), vol. 362, no. 6422, p. 732-734.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
42
Giotto Mission, Grigg-Skjellerup Comet, Interplanetary Dust, Meteoritic Damage, Spaceborne Astronomy, Impact Loads, Spacecraft Shielding
Scientific paper
In the European Space Agency's 1992 Giotto Extended Mission, the Dust Impact Detection System operated successfully during a fly-by that took the spacecraft within about 200 km of the nucleus of Comet Grigg-Skjellerup. During the encounter, three meteoroid impacts were detected on Giotto's front shield. The particle masses were found to be 100 super +105 sub -50 microg, 2 super +4 sub -1 microg, and 20 super +25 sub -10 microg, suggesting that the mass distribution of the cometary dust was dominated by larger particles. This is supported by the independent detection of a very large meteoroid (14 super +40 sub -4 mg) by the Giotto Radio-Science Experiment, and is consistent with data over the same mass range from the 1986 encounter with Comet Halley. The results indicate a higher rate of mass loss from the nucleus than previously thought, and hence a higher dust-to-gas mass ratio.
Beard Ronald
Bussoletti Ezio
Colangeli Luigi
Eberhardt Peter
Firth J. G.
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