Rosetta's Comet Hemorrhages Water into Space

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko continues to hurtle toward the sun, carefully watched by the Rosetta spacecraft. Now, scientists have noticed that this comet is practically hemorrhaging water as it continues its trip through space.

At the end of August 2014, the 2.5-mile-wide comet was releasing the equivalent of 40 ounces of water into space every second. What's more interesting, though, is that this off-pouring of water seems to be increasing over time.

"In observations over a period of three months [June through August, 2014], the amount of water in vapor form that the comet was dumping into space grew about tenfold," said Sam Gulkis, principal investigator of the MIRO instrument, in a news release. "To be up close and personal with a comet for an extended period of time has provided us with an unprecedented opportunity to see how comets transform from cold, icy bodies to active objects spewing out gas and dust as they get closer to the sun."

The MIRO instrument is a small and lightweight spectrometer that can map the abundance, temperature and velocity of cometary water vapor and other molecules that the nucleus of the comet releases. It can also measure the temperature up to about one inch below the surface of the comet's nucleus.

The nucleus of this particular comet consists of two lobes of different sizes, often referred to as the "body" and the "head." A substantial portion of the measured outgassing form June through September 2014 occurred from the "neck" region during the afternoon.

"That situation may be changing now that the comet is getting warmer," said Gulkis. "MIRO observations would need to be carefully analyzed to determine which factors in addition to the sun's warmth are responsible for the cometary outgassing."

The findings reveal a bit more about the comet. Currently, the comet is about 107 million miles from Earth and just 92 million miles from the sun. By studying the gas of this comet, Rosetta can tell scientists a bit more about the history and evolution of our solar system.

The findings are published in the journal Science.

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