Gases detected at Rosetta's Comet

The ROSINA (Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis) instrument on board ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft spent two years ‘sniffing’ the environment of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, obtaining unprecedented measurements of the gases found in a comet’s atmosphere. Besides the main component, water vapour, ROSINA detected a wide variety of chemical species, from simple atoms to increasingly complex molecules, including some ingredients that were crucial for the origin of life on Earth. In a humorous take on this ‘cometary zoo’, Kathrin Altwegg, ROSINA principal investigator from University of Bern and an enthusiast of animals, categorised the variety of bizarre ‘creatures’ they found at the comet.

This image was originally published on blogs.esa.int and sci.esa.int following the 29 September 2016 science briefing at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany.