A Comparison of Presolar Isotopic Signatures in Laboratory-Studied Primitive Solar System Materials and Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: New Insights from Light Elements, Halogens, and Noble Gases

Abstract

Comets are considered the most primitive planetary bodies in our Solar System. ESA’s Rosetta mission to Jupiter family comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P/CG) has provided a wealth of isotope data which expanded the existing data sets on isotopic compositions of comets considerably. In a previous paper (Hoppe et al. in Space Sci. Rev. 214:106, 2018) we reviewed the results for comet 67P/CG from the first four years of data reduction after arrival of Rosetta at the comet in August 2014 and discussed them in the context of respective meteorite data. Since then important new isotope data of several elements, among them the biogenic elements H, C, N, and O, for comet 67P/CG, the Tagish Lake meteorite, and C-type asteroid Ryugu became available which provide new insights into the formation conditions of small planetary bodies in the Solar System’s earliest history. To complement the picture on comet 67P/CG and its context to other primitive Solar System materials, especially meteorites, that emerged from our previous paper, we review here the isotopic compositions of H, C, and N in various volatile molecules, of O in water and a suite of other molecules, of the halogens Cl and Br, and of the noble gas Kr in comet 67P/CG. Furthermore, we also review the H isotope data obtained in the refractory organics of the dust grains collected in the coma of 67P/CG. These data are compared with the respective meteoritic and Ryugu data and spectroscopic observations of other comets and extra-solar environments; Cl, Br, and Kr data are also evaluated in the context of a potential late supernova contribution, as suggested by the Si- and S-isotopic data of 67P/CG.