29 Oct 2015
12:29
Federal Institutions
Discovery of abundant oxygen in a comet by Rosetta
The renowned scientific journal Nature published a perplexing discovery on Thursday October 29th: the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft has discovered – for the first time ever – the presence of oxygen gas O2 in the atmosphere of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Moreover, oxygen turns out to be a major component, constituting up to 10% of the comet atmosphere.
Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy