New gravity field of comet 67P/C-G based on Rosetta's Doppler and optical data

2024/09/04 by Laurent-Varin, Julien, James, Théo, Marty, Jean-Charles +3
#Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) #FOS: Physical sciences

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2409.02692

Abstract

We provide a new gravity field of Comet 67P-C/G up to degree 4. We detect mass heterogeneity in the comet nucleus. The loss of mass is restimated at 0.28% of the comet's total mass (3 times larger than previous estimate). Comparison of the gravity field between pre- and post-perihelion allowed us to measure a shift in the comet's center of gravity of 35 m northward, attributed to ice sublimation process.

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