@article{cbecf67237434347956fd8a440bbfab9,
title = "Summer outbursts in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as observed by Rosetta-VIRTIS",
abstract = "We present an analysis of transient events observed by the Visible InfraRed Thermal Imaging Spectrometer, instrument aboard Rosetta, for the dates of 2015 August 10, September 13 and 14, during the two months surrounding the comet perihelion passage of the Rosetta spacecraft. We detected and characterized events with life-times ranging from 26 min down to 6 min. The temporal evolution of the outburst shows a sudden increase of radiance from quiescent coma to the maximum in a few minutes. This rapid onset is correlated with a change of the visible dust colour from red, 15-18± 3 per cent/100 nm, to bluer with values of 7-10± 0.3 per cent/100 nm. The dust morphology of these outbursts can be classified into two main types: narrow and collimated plumes (August 10, September 13) and broad blobs (September 14). The observations suggest that there are localized regions on the surface that are more prone to outbursts than the rest of the nucleus. The projected dust velocity during the outburst events ranges between 22.2 ± 2.2 m s-1 and 64.9 ± 10.6 m s-1. The total ejected mass during an outburst event is estimated to be between 10 and 500 tons for a duration of 6-26 min assuming size distribution indices between -2.5 and -3.",
keywords = "Comets: individual: 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Methods: data analysis -methods:observational, Space vehicles: instruments, Techniques: imaging spectroscopy",
author = "G. Rinaldi and D. Bockel{\'e}e-Morvan and M. Ciarniello and Tozzi, {G. P.} and F. Capaccioni and Ivanovski, {S. L.} and G. Filacchione and U. Fink and L. Doose and F. Taylor and D. Kappel and S. Erard and C. Leyrat and A. Raponi and E. D'Aversa and Capria, {M. T.} and A. Longobardo and E. Palomba and F. Tosi and A. Migliorini and A. Rotundi and {Della Corte}, V. and M. Salatti",
note = "Funding Information: GIADA was built by a consortium led by the Univ. Napoli Parthenope & INAF-Oss. Astr. Capodimonte, in collaboration with the Inst. de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Selex-ES, FI and SENER. GI-ADA was managed & operated at INAF-IAPS. GIADA was funded and managed by the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, IT, with the support of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science MEC, ES. GIADA calibrated data are available through ESA PSA website (http://www.rssd.esa.int/index.php?project=PSA&page=index). Funding Information: We thank the following institutions and agencies for support of this work: Italian Space Agency (ASI, Italy) contract number I/024/12/1, Centre National d{\textquoteright}{\'E}tudes Spatiales (CNES, France), DLR (Germany), NASA (USA) Rosetta Program, and Science and Technology Facilities Council (UK). VIRTIS was built by a consortium, which includes Italy, France, and Germany under the scientific responsibility of the Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali of INAF, Italy, that also guides the scientific operations. The VIRTIS instrument development, led by the prime contractor Leonardo-Finmeccanica (Florence, Italy), has been funded and managed by Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), with contributions from Obser-vatoire de Meudon financed by (CNES)Centre National d{\textquoteright}{\'E}tudes Spatiales, and from German Aerospace Center (DLR). We thank the Rosetta Science Ground Segment and the Rosetta Mission Operations Centre for their support throughout all the phases of the mission. The VIRTIS calibrated data will be available through the ESA{\textquoteright}s Planetary Science Archive website (http://www.rssd.esa.int) and is available upon request in advance of being posted to the archive. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 The Author(s).",
year = "2018",
month = nov,
day = "21",
doi = "10.1093/MNRAS/STY2266",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "481",
pages = "1235--1250",
journal = "Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society",
issn = "0035-8711",
publisher = "Oxford University Press",
number = "1",
}