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Rosetta Spacecraft Makes Nitrogen Discovery On Comet

Posted by samzenpus on from the what's-that-smell dept.

An anonymous reader sends word that the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft has detected traces of molecular nitrogen on the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. "A peculiar mix of molecular nitrogen on the comet target of Europe's Rosetta spacecraft may offer clues to the conditions that gave birth to the entire solar system. Molecular nitrogen was one of the key ingredients of the young solar system. Its detection in Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, which Rosetta is currently orbiting, suggests that the comet formed under low-temperature conditions (a requirement to keeping nitrogen as ice), according to officials with the European Space Agency."

5 of 17 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Useless waste by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

    The finding of dirty snow is literally worth more than gold to space colonists. Gold would have market value if brought back, net of whatever large expense that would take, while water for "local" use is one more vital consumable that will not have to be hauled up through Earth's gravity well.

  2. Nine Posts, Seven of Which are ACs... by occasional_dabbler · · Score: 2
    ... and the other two refer to a poor choice of shirt?

    Slashdot should just close down now.

    The fact that we know that this comet is a thing is amazing in itself. The fact that we sent a probe to intercept it, orbit it and make these kind of measurements is beyond amazing.

    Nitrogen is one of the main constituents of biological chemistry; knowing where it came from and how it affected Earth's, hence our, development is more interesting than apparel choices.

    Sheesh

    --
    "Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs," I said. "we have a protractor"
    1. Re:Nine Posts, Seven of Which are ACs... by InfiniteLoopCounter · · Score: 1

      I know what you mean and I wish people were more active in talking about these things. However, the people who organise the public engagement aren't really that good and there is a sense that the missions are going only ever so slowly forwards.

      Whenever we get a picture from Mars it is in black and white with "color correction" when they have a perfectly good colour camera on-board and a sunset is taken. Here in the article we have a relatively dull picture with lots of writing that can't easily be read embedded into it. I think people would be more inclined to comment if it was more apparent what this is all about and exactly how this discovery is an incremental improvement in our understanding of the early solar system formation. (Maybe with a link to something like The History of the Earth for those new to this topic)

      The other thing that makes me a little unhappy with the Rosetta mission is the Philae lander being the "poster child" for solar panel success. Of course the thing landed in a cavity and promptly lost all its ability to make new power. Even the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity used nuclear thermal power to make sure the solar panels would still be able to work without problems. This kind of political interference wasn't needed I don't think.

      That all said, yes, it is great that the Rosetta mission is achieving things we haven't done before and is a testament to human endeavour.

  3. Re:America's academic community waits for the news by Dr+Bip · · Score: 1

    "Stop saying there is ice on that comet" Well, it's 2AU from the Sun, therefore not terribly warm, so any water released will have come from a solid phase, and *it* is generating water vapour. I'd say that that suggests (very strongly) that it contains water ice. "when at best you detected tiny traces of it" Mass fluxes of the order of 10kg/s so far - we may not see the hundred-tonnes per second release rate of Hale-Bopp, but that was a far larger object.

  4. Re:Useless waste by fateblossom · · Score: 1

    And people will never fly. Or people will never go out in space. Or people will never go to the moon.

    Just because we can't do it now then it dos not mean that it's impossible and we wont do it in the future.
    And the more knowledge we get about space the closer we are to prove you wrong.

    So knowledge is good. Even if it wont help us colonies the space in our life time. Then it can help future generations.