Rosetta’s detection of xenon – a colourless, odourless gas which makes up less than one billionth of the volume of Earth’s atmosphere – might hold the key to answer a long-standing question about comets: did they contribute to the delivery of material to our planet when the Solar System was taking shape, some 4.6 billion years ago? And if so, by how much?
Find out more: http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/59177-rosetta-finds-comet-connection-to-earth-s-atmosphere/
ESA Science & Technology: Rosetta finds comet connection to Earth’s atmosphere
The challenging detection, by ESA’s Rosetta mission, of several isotopes of the noble gas xenon at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko has established the first quantitative link between comets and the atmosphere of Earth. The blend of xenon found at the comet closely resembles U-xenon, the primordial m…