Waspie_Dwarf Posted April 8, 2016 #1 Share Posted April 8, 2016 The colour-changing comet 7 April 2016 Rosetta’s comet has been seen changing colour and brightness in front of the ESA orbiter’s eyes, as the Sun’s heat strips away the older surface to reveal fresher material.Rosetta’s Visible and InfraRed Thermal Imaging Spectrometer, VIRTIS, began to detect these changes in the sunlit parts of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko – mostly the northern hemisphere and equatorial regions – in the months immediately following the spacecraft’s arrival in August 2014. Read more... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merc14 Posted April 8, 2016 #2 Share Posted April 8, 2016 So can we assume the comet darkens with accumulated dust as it travels away from the sun and cools and then sheds this dust layer as it approaches the sun and begins outgassing or does the surface layer simply change as its environment changes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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