ESA Rosetta Spacecraft Detects Argon on the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

ESA's Rosetta spacecraft has detected argon on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for the first time. This latest detection actually adds to the debate about the role of comets in delivering the "ingredients" of life to Earth and other planets.

Comets are considered to be representative of icy planetesimals that may have contributed a significant fraction of the volatiles to planets in the very early solar system. It's also believed that comets must have brought some water to Earth. However, the magnitude of their contribution is still a matter of debate. In this latest study, though, researchers found that Rosetta detected the noble gas argon in the comet of the comet that it's currently studying.

One of the main goals of the Rosetta mission is to measure in situ the volatile inventory of 67P, a Jupiter family comet. The tool used to perform these measurements is called ROSINA, a mass spectrometer. It has a high sensitivity and a high mass resolution, which allows the comparison to remote sensing observations and to the only previous in situ measurement at comet Halley in 1986.

The new findings could be huge when it comes to better understanding comets and their relationships with planets. This, in turn, may tell scientists a bit more about how other planets in our solar system formed over time.

The findings are published in the journal Science Advances.

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