Shedding light on comet Chury's unexpected chemical complexity




Comets are remnants from the creation of the sun, planets, and moons and are fossils from the distant past and the interior of our solar system. As they report in a study published at the end of June in the journal Nature Communications, a team led by chemist Dr. Nora Hänni of the Physics Institute of the University of Bern, Department of Space Research and Planetary Sciences, has now successfully identified a comprehensive list of complex organic molecules at a comet for the first time.

Due to the Bernese mass spectrometer, the analysis was more accurate.

The major space agencies put out a fleet of spacecraft to pass by Halley's comet in the middle of the 1980s. There were multiple mass spectrometers on board that examined the chemical makeup of the striking material as well as the coma of the comet, which is the comet's thin atmosphere caused by the sublimation of cometary ices near to the Sun. However, the resolution of the data generated by these sensors was insufficient to enable clear interpretation.

Now, more than 30 years later, data from the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, also known as Chury, were obtained between 2014 and 2016 by the high-resolution mass spectrometer ROSINA, an instrument headed by Bern on board the ESA's Rosetta mission. The researchers can now for the first time provide insight into the intricate organic budget of Chury thanks to these data.

The information was buried in the sand.

Chury became extremely active as it reached its perihelion, which is when it is closest to the Sun. Cometary ices that were being sublimated produced an outflow that carried dust particles. Solar radiation raised the temperatures of the expelled particles above those generally found at the cometary surface. Larger and heavier molecules can then desorb as a result, becoming accessible to the high-resolution mass spectrometer ROSINA-DFMS (Rosetta Orbiter Sensor for Ion and Neutral Analysis-Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer). The spacecraft had to retreat to a safe distance of a little bit more than 200 km above the cometary surface in order for the instruments to be able to operate under steady conditions because of the extremely dusty conditions, according to astronomer Prof. em. Dr. Kathrin Altwegg, principal investigator of the ROSINA instrument and co-author of the new study. This made it feasible to find species that had previously been concealed in the cometary dust and were made up of more than a few atoms.

It is difficult to comprehend such complicated facts. The Bernese scientific team did, however, succeed in locating a number of intricate organic compounds that had never before been discovered in a comet. "We discovered naphthalene, for example, which is the chemical behind mothballs' distinctive odor. In addition, we discovered benzoic acid, an organic incense component. We also found numerous additional compounds, including benzaldehyde, which is frequently used to give food an almond flavor." According to Hänni, these powerful organics would ostensibly make Chury's aroma even more complex and alluring.

In Chury's organics budget, several species with so-called prebiotic functionality have also been discovered in addition to aromatic compounds (e.g., formamide). These substances play a crucial role as synthesis intermediates for biomolecules (e.g., sugars or amino acids). Therefore, it is plausible that comet impacts, which are important sources of organic material, also had a role in the development of carbon-based life on Earth, says Hänni.

Saturn's organics and meteorites have similarities.

Along with identifying specific chemicals, the researchers also performed a thorough characterisation of the whole ensemble of complex organic molecules in comet Chury, enabling them to place it in the context of the broader Solar System. For a wide range of scientists, from astronomers to experts on the solar system, parameters like the average sum formula of this organic substance or the average bonding geometry of the carbon atoms in it are crucial.

Hänni says, "Apart from the relative amount of hydrogen atoms, the molecular budget of Chury also strongly resembles the organic material raining down on Saturn from its innermost ring, as detected by the INMS mass spectrometer onboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft. It turned out that Chury's complex organics budget is, on average, identical to the soluble part of meteoritic organic matter."

According to Prof. Dr. Susanne Wampfler, astrophysicist at the Center for Space and Habitability (CSH) at the University of Bern and co-author of the study, "We do not only find similarities of the organic reservoirs in the Solar System, but many of Chury's organic molecules are also present in molecular clouds, the birthplaces of new stars." Our results "show that comets do indeed contain material from the ages long before our Solar System arose and are compatible with and support the notion of a shared presolar genesis of the multiple reservoirs of Solar System organics."



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Materials provided by University of Bern. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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