Washington – On March 21 the prestigious scientific journal Nature Astronomy and Science have simultaneously published two different articles related to some important scientific discoveries made by the OSIRIS instrument aboard the Rosetta mission, which ended on September 30 after more than two years of observations of the comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko couching on the soil of the comet’s nucleus. The two articles, to the realization of which many scientists at the University of Padua took part, both describe the results obtained thanks to observations made with the two telescopes of OSIRIS, the instrument on the spacecraft devoted to the acquisition of images of the comet. For the first time ever they monitored events that have modified the surface of the core during the passage of the comet at perihelion, which is the point in its orbit closest to the sun. It was therefore sought to understand the mechanisms that govern the dynamics of these beautiful and fascinating celestial bodies. (9colonne)
