The temporal evolution of exposed water ice-rich areas on the surface of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: spectral analysis

Kurzfassung

Water ice-rich patches have been detected on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by the VIRTIS hyperspectral imager on-board the Rosetta spacecraft, since the orbital insertion in late August 2014. Among those, three icy patches have been selected, and VIRTIS data have been used to analyse their properties and temporal evolution while the comet was moving towards the Sun. We performed an extensive analysis of the spectral parameters, and we applied the Hapke radiative transfer model to retrieve the abundance and grain size of water ice, as well as the mixing modalities of water ice and the ubiquitous dark refractory terrains of the surface. Study of the spatial distribution of the spectral parameters within the ice-rich patches has revealed that water ice follows different patterns associated to a bimodal distribution of the grains: ~50 μm sized and ~2000 μm sized, respectively in intimate and areal mixture with the dark material. In all three cases we identified different stages of the evolution of abundance of ice in the selected patches after the first detections at about 3.5 AU heliocentric distance; the spatial extension and intensity of the water ice spectral features reached a maximum after 60-100 days at about 3.0 AU, was followed by an approximately equally timed decrease, and the features were no longer visible when observed again at about ~2.2 AU, before perihelion. The exposure of deeper layers is consistent with their occurrence in “active” areas where falls or landslides could have caused the occasional exposure of water ice-rich layers. After the initial exposure of the ice, the activity of the affected area increases thus causing dust removal powered by sublimation, which provides a positive feedback on the exposure itself. The process develops as the solar flux increases, and it reaches a turning point when the exposure rate is outweighed by the sublimation rate, until the complete sublimation of the patch. It is interesting to note that the behaviour of the analysed patches was very similar with a lifecycle of about 180 days, which can be ascribed to a seasonal cycle. In addition to the observed seasonal cycle we found evidence of short-term variability associated to a diurnal water cycle. Our analysis, in addition to previous work (Filacchione et al., 2016; Barucci et al., 2016; Ciarniello et al., 2016), indicates that water ice is rather evenly distributed in the subsurface and that no large water ice reservoirs are present.