Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
10701323 | Icarus | 2013 | 31 Pages |
Abstract
We characterized the organic residue thermal evolution for temperatures up to 500Â K. We observed that HMT is still produced at temperatures higher than 300Â K. Production of solid HMT and sublimation are simultaneous. HMT observed in the solid phase could be only a minor fraction of the total HMT production, the major fraction being sublimated. The kinetics of the HMT thermal evolution strongly depends on the organic residue composition at 300Â K and seems to depend on the exact nature of the oxygenated fraction of the organic residue. The maximum temperature at which solid HMT is observed is 450Â K. As HMT forms only for temperatures greater than 280Â K in laboratory conditions, it implies that the detection of solid HMT in extraterrestrial samples will provide a strong indication of their thermal history. Consequently, the search for HMT in both solid cometary grains and gaseous phases in the coma of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko will have to be performed by the Rosetta space mission, in particular with the COSIMA and ROSINA instruments.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Earth and Planetary Sciences
Space and Planetary Science
Authors
Giacomo Briani, Nicolas Fray, Hervé Cottin, Yves Benilan, Marie-Claire Gazeau, Sebastien Perrier,