Virtis: An Imaging Spectrometer for the Rosetta Mission |
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| Authors: | A Coradini F Capaccioni P Drossart G Arnold E Ammannito F Angrilli A Barucci G Bellucci J Benkhoff G Bianchini J P Bibring M Blecka D Bockelee-Morvan M T Capria R Carlson U Carsenty P Cerroni L Colangeli M Combes M Combi J Crovisier M C Desanctis E T Encrenaz S Erard C Federico G Filacchione U Fink S Fonti V Formisano W H Ip R Jaumann E Kuehrt Y Langevin G Magni T Mccord V Mennella S Mottola G Neukum P Palumbo G Piccioni H Rauer B Saggin B Schmitt D Tiphene G Tozzi |
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| Institution: | (1) INAF, Istituto di Fisica Dello Spazio Interplanetario, Area di Ricerca di Tor Vergata, Via del Fosso del Cavaliere, 00133 Roma, Italy;(2) INAF, Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica, Roma, Italy;(3) LESIA Observatoire de Paris Meudon, Paris, France;(4) DLR, Berlin, Germany;(5) Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica, Universitè di Padova, Berlin, Germany;(6) Dipartimento di Fisica, Universitè di Lecce, Lecce, Italy;(7) Osservatorio di Capodimonte, Napoli, Italy;(8) Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Firenze, Italy;(9) Institut d’Astrophysique Spatial CNRS, Orsay, France;(10) Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Geophysique de l’Environment, Grenoble, France;(11) Space Physics Research Laboratory, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA;(12) Department of Earth and Space Science, University of Washington, Seattle, USA;(13) Lunar Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA;(14) Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland;(15) NASA JPL, Pasadena, USA;(16) Universitè di Perugia, Perugia, Italy;(17) MPI, Katlenburg, Germany;(18) ESTEC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands |
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| Abstract: | The VIRTIS (Visual IR Thermal Imaging Spectrometer) experiment has been one of the most successful experiments built in Europe
for Planetary Exploration. VIRTIS, developed in cooperation among Italy, France and Germany, has been already selected as
a key experiment for 3 planetary missions: the ESA-Rosetta and Venus Express and NASA-Dawn. VIRTIS on board Rosetta and Venus
Express are already producing high quality data: as far as Rosetta is concerned, the Earth-Moon system has been successfully
observed during the Earth Swing-By manouver (March 2005) and furthermore, VIRTIS will collect data when Rosetta flies by Mars
in February 2007 at a distance of about 200 kilometres from the planet. Data from the Rosetta mission will result in a comparison
– using the same combination of sophisticated experiments – of targets that are poorly differentiated and are representative
of the composition of different environment of the primordial solar system. Comets and asteroids, in fact, are in close relationship
with the planetesimals, which formed from the solar nebula 4.6 billion years ago. The Rosetta mission payload is designed
to obtain this information combining in situ analysis of comet material, obtained by the small lander Philae, and by a long lasting and detailed remote sensing of the
comet, obtained by instrument on board the orbiting Spacecraft. The combination of remote sensing and in situ measurements will increase the scientific return of the mission. In fact, the “in situ” measurements will provide “ground-truth” for the remote sensing information, and, in turn, the locally collected data will
be interpreted in the appropriate context provided by the remote sensing investigation. VIRTIS is part of the scientific payload
of the Rosetta Orbiter and will detect and characterise the evolution of specific signatures – such as the typical spectral
bands of minerals and molecules – arising from surface components and from materials dispersed in the coma. The identification
of spectral features is a primary goal of the Rosetta mission as it will allow identification of the nature of the main constituent
of the comets. Moreover, the surface thermal evolution during comet approach to sun will be also studied. |
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| Keywords: | comets spectroscopy space missions |
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