To the great surprise of the scientific community, the analysis of the data from the Rosetta spacecraft of the European Space Agency (ESA) has determined the unexpected presence of large amounts of molecular oxygen in the coma or gas cloud that surrounds the nucleus of comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko . The finding has been published in the journal Nature .
After the existence of water, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in most comets, we must now add one more molecule: oxygen. This is the first time that it has been detected in a comet coma , so it is not ruled out that it can be located in more comets and helps us get a little closer to the formation process of the solar system in which we live.
The discovery has been made possible thanks to the ROSINA-DFMS mass spectrometer aboard the Rosetta spacecraft that has recorded data from the comet’s coma between September 2014 and March 2015 when it orbited around 67P / Chury. The results have revealed around 3.80% molecular oxygen on average in relation to water, giving us clues that the primordial oxygen present in the molecular cloud from when the solar system was born was included in the nucleus during formation. of the comet, an extreme not contemplated in current models of the origins of the solar system .
“Our observations indicate that the O2 / H2O ratio in the coma is isotropic (it does not depend on the direction in which it is examined) and does not change systematically with distance from the Sun,” explains André Bieler from the University of Michigan (USA). ) and study leader.
Since oxygen is older than our solar system, it is possible that comets were the “sowers” of some of the essential ingredients that led to the birth of life on Earth. Undoubtedly a mystery that the historic Rosetta mission will help us unravel.
