Mahaffy and Niemann, Developers of Instrument That Will Measure Comet Gases

The Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) mission is a joint collaboration with the European Space Agency and NASA. The CONTOUR spacecraft will visit and study at least two comets at the peak of its activity, close to the Sun. During each encounter, the target comet will also be well situated in the night sky for astronomers worldwide to make concurrent observations from the ground. CONTOUR will assess for the time how diverse these original building blocks of the solar system are. CONTOUR will also clear up the many mysteries of how comets evolve as they approach the Sun and their ices begin to evaporate.

To assist with furthering the understanding, the CONTOUR spacecraft will carry the Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS) that was developed by Paul Mahaffy, Hasso Niemann and others employees at the Atmospheric Experiment Branch at Goddard. This instrument is designed to measure the chemical and isotopic composition of the neutral gas and ion species near the nucleus of each comet during the fast CONTOUR flybys. The data will give scientist information about chemical conditions in the early stages of solar system formation.

For more information on the CONTOUR project, go to: http://webserver.gsfc.nasa.gov/contour.html