Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 348, Issue 6231, Pages 232-235Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa6100
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Funding
- State of Bern
- Swiss National Science Foundation
- European Space Agency PRODEX Program
- Max-Planck Society
- Bundesministerium fur Wirtschaft und Energie [50QP1302]
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) [1496541]
- Belgian Science Policy Office via PRODEX/ROSINA PEA [90020]
- A*MIDEX project - Investissements d'Avenir French government program [ANR-11-IDEX-0001-02]
- CNES at IRAP
- LATMOS
- LPC2E
- Univers, Transport, Interfaces, Nanostructures, Atmosphere et Environnement, Molecules (UTINAM)
- CRPG
- European Research Council [267255]
- Ministry of Science
- Israel Space agency
- NASA [JPL-1266313]
- NASA JPL [NAS703001TONMO710889]
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Molecular nitrogen (N-2) is thought to have been the most abundant form of nitrogen in the protosolar nebula. It is the main N-bearing molecule in the atmospheres of Pluto and Triton and probably the main nitrogen reservoir from which the giant planets formed. Yet in comets, often considered the most primitive bodies in the solar system, N-2 has not been detected. Here we report the direct in situ measurement of N-2 in the Jupiter family comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, made by the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis mass spectrometer aboard the Rosetta spacecraft. A N-2/CO ratio of (5.70 +/- 0.66) x 10(-3) (2s standard deviation of the sampled mean) corresponds to depletion by a factor of -25.4 +/- 8.9 as compared to the protosolar value. This depletion suggests that cometary grains formed at low-temperature conditions below similar to 30 kelvin.
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