Comets as Tracers of Solar System Formation and Evolution

This volume is a compilation of an International Workshop on Comets as Tracers of Solar System Formation and Evolution that was held in Toulouse, France, from April 1-3, 2014, meant to prepare the community for the task of placing Rosetta observations within the greater context of using comets as tracers of solar system formation and evolution. More than 100 scientists from 18 different countries participated in this three-day science program, which was comprised of themed sessions and featured a mixture of invited reviews, invited and contributed talks and posters. These invited speakers included many of the community leaders in cometary science, measurements and technology development. The workshop covered topics ranging from the dynamical and chemical evolution of the solar nebula during formation, to the techniques for measuring the composition of comets. Of particular focus was the role that measurements made by Rosetta could be expected to play in understandingthe origin of solar system bodies. The purpose of this volume is to build upon the results of this workshop, providing a formal record of the state of knowledge leading into the Rosetta mission.

Originally published in Space Science Reviews, Volume 197, Issues 1-4, 2015

• ESA Rosetta Mission
• Solar System formation
• Solar System evolution
• Composition of comets
• Taxonomy of comets
• Density of comets
• Protosolar nebula
• Dynamics of comets

• Space Science and Engineering, Southwest Research Institute Space Science and Engineering, San Antonio, USA

  Kathleen Mandt

• Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, LAM, Marseille, France

  Olivier Mousis

• Observatoire de Paris, LESIA/CNRS, UPMC, Meudon, France

  Dominique Bockelée-Morvan

• Institute of Geophysics & Planetary Physics, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA

  Christopher Russell

Dr. Kathleen E. Mandt is a Senior Research Scientist at Southwest Research Institute. She is currently serving on the science team of the Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC) Ion Electron Spectrometer (IES) and until recently acted as the liaison between IES and the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) teams. Dr. Mandt is also a member of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) science team, previously served on the Cassini Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer science team and is an Adjoint Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her primary research involves studies of atmospheric chemistry, dynamics and evolution based on in situ and remote sensing observations.

Professor Olivier Mousis is a member of the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille at Aix-Marseille Université. He is the author or co-author of about 150 papers in the fields of physical chemistry ofthe protosolar nebula, the formation of comets, giant planets and satellites. He is currently contributing to the interpretation of the data returned from the ROSINA and PTOLEMY instruments flying aboard the Rosetta mission. Professor Mousis is also involved in the preparation of the ESA JUICE and NASA Europa-Clipper missions as team member of several instruments selected to be flown aboard.

The main field of research of Dr. Dominique Bockelée-Morvan is the study of the molecular and isotopic composition of cometary ices from ground or space-based observations in the millimeter and infrared wavelength ranges, including with interferometry techniques. She was involved in several projects making use of the Herschel Space observatory. She is co-investigator of the MIRO and VIRTIS instruments onboard Rosetta, and of the MAJIS and SWI instruments for the JUICE mission.

Professor Christopher T. Russell is a member of the Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences at the University of California Los Angeles and the Planetary Sciences Editor of Space Science Reviews.  He is currently the Principal Investigator of NASA’s Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres and a team member on the Cassini, InSight, Europa, STEREO and Magnetospheric Multiscale missions.

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