Abstract
The Grain Impact Analyser and Dust Accumulator (GIADA) instrument, on board the ESA Rosetta mission, shall analyse the physical and dynamical properties of grains ejected by the target comet and monitor the coma evolution in terms of dust flux and spatial distribution vs. time. The mission, formerly planned to visit comet 46P/Wirtanen, is now targeted to a rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The present operative mission plan foresees that Rosetta will follow the comet from about 4 AU pre-perihelion to about 2 AU post-perihelion. This will allow us to study, for the first time, the onset and evolution of activity of a comet nucleus and its environment. GIADA is composed by different sub-systems designed to measure mass, momentum and speed of single grains larger than about 30 μm in size and to monitor the cumulative flux of smaller grains coming from different directions. GIADA technical characteristics and scientific performances will guarantee a full monitoring of the dust environment and the achievement of unprecedented scientific results about cometary dust physics.
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Colangeli, L. et al. (2004). The Giada Experiment for the Rosetta Mission. In: Colangeli, L., Epifani, E.M., Palumbo, P. (eds) The New Rosetta Targets. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 311. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2573-0_25
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2573-0_25
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