Evidence of ammonium salts in comet 67P as explanation for the nitrogen depletion in cometary comae

被引：109

作者：

Altwegg, Kathrin ^{[1
]}

Balsiger, Hans ^{[1
]}

Hanni, Nora ^{[1
]}

Rubin, Martin ^{[1
]}

Schuhmann, Markus ^{[1
]}

Schroeder, Isaac ^{[1
]}

Semon, Thierry ^{[1
]}

Wampfler, Susanne ^{[2
]}

Berthelier, Jean-Jacques ^{[3
]}

Briois, Christelle ^{[4
]}

Combi, Mike ^{[5
]}

Gombosi, Tamas I. ^{[5
]}

Cottin, Herve ^{[6
]}

De Keyser, Johan ^{[7
]}

Dhooghe, Frederik ^{[7
]}

Fiethe, Bjoern ^{[8
]}

Fuselier, Steven A. ^{[9
,10
]}

机构：

[1] Univ Bern, Phys Inst, Bern, Switzerland

[2] Univ Bern, Ctr Space & Habitabil, Bern, Switzerland

[3] UPMC, UVSQ, CNRS, IPSL,LATMOS, St Maur, France

[4] Univ Orleans, Lab Phys & Chim Environm & Espace LPC2E, UMR CNRS 7328, Orleans, France

[5] Univ Michigan, Dept Climate & Space Sci & Engn, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA

[6] Univ Paris, Univ Paris Est Creteil, IPSL, LISA,UMR CNRS 758 3, Creteil, France

[7] IASB, BIRA, Royal Belgian Inst Space Aeron, Brussels, Belgium

[8] TU Braunschweig, Inst Comp & Network Engn IDA, Braunschweig, Germany

[9] Southwest Res Inst, Space Sci Directorate, San Antonio, TX USA

[10] Univ Texas San Antonio, Dept Phys & Astron, San Antonio, TX USA

来源：

NATURE ASTRONOMY | 2020年 / 4卷 / 05期

基金：

瑞士国家科学基金会;

关键词：

AMINO-ACIDS; PARTICLES; ION; 67P/CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO; SPECTROMETER; COSIMA;

D O I：

10.1038/s41550-019-0991-9

中图分类号：

P1 [天文学];

学科分类号：

0704 ;

摘要：

A dust impact event detected by the ROSINA mass spectrometer towards the end of the Rosetta mission brings evidence of the presence of ammonium salts in comets. Ammonium salts can store enough nitrogen to explain the observed nitrogen depletion in comets and may have a role in amino acid formation. Cometary comae are generally depleted in nitrogen. The main carriers for volatile nitrogen in comets are NH3 and HCN. It is known that ammonia readily combines with many acids, such as HCN, HNCO and HCOOH, encountered in the interstellar medium as well as in cometary ice to form ammonium salts (NH4+X-) at low temperatures. Ammonium salts, which can have a substantial role in prebiotic chemistry, are hard to detect in space as they are unstable in the gas phase and their infrared signature is often hidden by thermal radiation or by, for example, OH in minerals. Here we report the presence of all possible sublimation products of five different ammonium salts in the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko measured by the ROSINA instrument onboard Rosetta. The relatively high sublimation temperatures of the salts leads to an apparent lack of volatile nitrogen in the coma. This then also explains the observed trend of higher NH3/H2O ratios with decreasing perihelion distances in comets.

引用

页码：533 / +

页数：12

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