A Perspective on the Complex Organic Composition of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Kurzfassung

The Philae Lander of ESA’s Rosetta Mission landed succcessfully on, but immediately rebounded from, the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Thereafter the COmetary SAmpling and Composition Experiment (COSAC), a pyrolysis Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer, on board Philae made, while in resumed flight, made unique mass spectral measurements of the organic species thrown upward due to the impact. We here will discuss the several organic species identified in this COSAC data [1]. Further we will extrapolate the identifications to develop a perspective of a conjectural complex organic chemistry occuring on the nucleus. The extrapolation will attempt to fill the void between the unprecedented COSAC identifications on one end with the historical macromolecular chemistry models of the nucleus [2]. Our endeavour is to rationalize the physico-chemical processes that lead to the synthesis of non-volatile macromolecular organic material on the nucleus surface, assess their background in historical literature [3], and elucidate how the species detected by COSAC are minor constructs of this complex material.