IAU Colloquium 168
Cometary Nuclei in Space and Time

Nanjing, China
May 18-22, 1998

Electronically-submitted Abstracts of Participants


The GIADA experiment for Rosetta mission to comet 46P/Wirtanen: performances and capabilities
P. Palumbo (1), E. Bussoletti (1), L. Colangeli (1), E. Epifani (1), V. Mennella (1), E. Palomba (1), A. Rotundi (1), S. Vergara (1) and GIADA Team (2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9);
(1) Laboratorio di Fisica Cosmica, IUN-OAC, Napoli; (2) Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Granada; (3) Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste; (4) CISAS - Università di Padova; (5) University of Kent at Canterbury; (6) Laboratoire d'Astronomie Spatiale, CNRS, Marseille; (7) IAS, Reparto di Planetologia, CNR, Roma; (8) Observatorie de Haute Provence Saint Michel l'Observatoire; (9) CNRS, Service d'Aeronomie, Verrieres le Buisson

The GIADA (Grain Impact Analyser and Dust Accumulator) Team is responsible for a scientific payload for the Rosetta mission able to measure dust flux dynamic parameters in cometary coma. A first set of sensors (MBS - Micro-Balances System) is based on 5 quartz crystal micro-balances, with the sensitivity to measure very small mass, both cumulated and from a single particle, deposited on the sensing surface. It will be used to derive the flux from different direction inside the coma. Another subsystem (GDS - Grain Detection System) is used to detect the transit of single particles, and together with the third sensor (IS - Impact Sensor), which measure the momentum, is able to determine velocity and mass of the impinging cometary particles. The status of the experiment, its foreseen and measured performances and the scientific capabilities will be presented.



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