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We describe the AMBITION project, a mission to return the first-ever cryogenically-stored sample of a cometary nucleus, that has been proposed for the ESA Science Programme Voyage 2050. Comets are the leftover building blocks of giant planet cores and other planetary bodies, and fingerprints of Solar System’s formation processes. We summarise some of the most important questions still open in cometary science and Solar System formation after the successful Rosetta mission. We show that many of these scientific questions require sample analysis using techniques that are only possible in laboratories on Earth. We summarize measurements, instrumentation and mission scenarios that can address these questions. We emphasize the need for returning a sample collected at depth or, still more challenging, at cryogenic temperatures while preserving the stratigraphy of the comet nucleus surface layers. We provide requirements for the next generation of landers, for cryogenic sample acquisition and storage during the return to Earth. Rendezvous missions to the main belt comets and Centaurs, expanding our knowledge by exploring new classes of comets, are also discussed. The AMBITION project is discussed in the international context of comet and asteroid space exploration.

Here, we report the detection of phosphorus and fluorine in solid particles collected from the inner coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko measured with the COmetary Secondary Ion Mass Analyser (COSIMA) instrument on-board the Rosetta spacecraft, only a few kilometers away from the comet nucleus. We have detected phosphorus-containing minerals from the presented COSIMA mass spectra, and can rule out e.g. apatite minerals as the source of phosphorus. This result completes the detection of life-necessary CHNOPS-elements in solid cometary matter, indicating cometary delivery as a potential source of these elements to the young Earth. Fluorine was also detected with CF$^+$ secondary ions originating from the cometary dust., Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, 1 table, supplementary 2 tables and 2 figures

Astrobiology is an interdisciplinary scientific field not only focused on the search of extraterrestrial life, but also on deciphering the key environmental parameters that have enabled the emergence of life on Earth. Understanding these physical and chemical parameters is fundamental knowledge necessary not only for discovering life or signs of life on other planets, but also for understanding our own terrestrial environment. Therefore, astrobiology pushes us to combine different perspectives such as the conditions on the primitive Earth, the physicochemical limits of life, exploration of habitable environments in the Solar System, and the search for signatures of life in exoplanets. Chemists, biologists, geologists, planetologists and astrophysicists are contributing extensively to this interdisciplinary research field. From 2011 to 2014, the European Space Agency (ESA) had the initiative to gather a Topical Team of interdisciplinary scientists focused on astrobiology to review the profound transformations in the field that have occurred since the beginning of the new century. The present paper is an interdisciplinary review of current research in astrobiology, covering the major advances and main outlooks in the field. The following subjects will be reviewed and most recent discoveries will be highlighted: the new understanding of planetary system formation including the specificity of the Earth among the diversity of planets, the origin of water on Earth and its unique combined properties among solvents for the emergence of life, the idea that the Earth could have been habitable during the Hadean Era, the inventory of endogenous and exogenous sources of organic matter and new concepts about how chemistry could evolve towards biological molecules and biological systems. In addition, many new findings show the remarkable potential life has for adaptation and survival in extreme environments. All those results from different fields of science are guiding our per

Since in situ studies and interplanetary dust collections only provide a spatially limited amount of information about the interplanetary dust properties, it is of major importance to complete these studies with properties inferred from remote observations of light scattered and emitted, with interpretation through simulations. Physical properties of the interplanetary dust in the near-ecliptic symmetry surface, such as the local polarization, temperature and composition, together with their heliocentric variations, may be derived from scattered and emitted light observations, giving clues to the respective contribution of the particles sources. A model of light scattering by a cloud of solid particles constituted by spheroidal grains and aggregates thereof is used to interpret the local light scattering data. Equilibrium temperature of the same particles allows us to interpret the temperature heliocentric variations. A good fit of the local polarization phase curve, $P_{\alpha}$, near 1.5~AU from the Sun is obtained for a mixture of silicates and more absorbing organics material ($\approx$40 % in mass) and for a realistic size distribution typical of the interplanetary dust in the 0.2 to 200 micrometre size range. The contribution of dust particles of cometary origin is at least 20% in mass. The same size distribution of particles gives a solar distance, $R$, dependence of the temperature in $R^{-0.45}$ different than the typical black body behavior. The heliocentric dependence of $P_{\alpha=90{\deg}}$ is interpreted as a progressive disappearance of solid organics (such as HCN polymers or amorphous carbon) towards the Sun., Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, 1 table

Since in situ studies and interplanetary dust collections only provide a spatially limited amount of information about the interplanetary dust properties, it is of major importance to complete these studies with properties inferred from remote observations of light scattered and emitted, with interpretation through simulations. Physical properties of the interplanetary dust in the near-ecliptic symmetry surface, such as the local polarization, temperature and composition, together with their heliocentric variations, may be derived from scattered and emitted light observations, giving clues to the respective contribution of the particles sources. A model of light scattering by a cloud of solid particles constituted by spheroidal grains and aggregates thereof is used to interpret the local light scattering data. Equilibrium temperature of the same particles allows us to interpret the temperature heliocentric variations. A good fit of the local polarization phase curve, $P_{\alpha}$, near 1.5~AU from the Sun is obtained for a mixture of silicates and more absorbing organics material ($\approx$40 % in mass) and for a realistic size distribution typical of the interplanetary dust in the 0.2 to 200 micrometre size range. The contribution of dust particles of cometary origin is at least 20% in mass. The same size distribution of particles gives a solar distance, $R$, dependence of the temperature in $R^{-0.45}$ different than the typical black body behavior. The heliocentric dependence of $P_{\alpha=90{\deg}}$ is interpreted as a progressive disappearance of solid organics (such as HCN polymers or amorphous carbon) towards the Sun., Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, 1 table

Astrobiology is an interdisciplinary scientific field not only focused on the search of extraterrestrial life, but also on deciphering the key environmental parameters that have enabled the emergence of life on Earth. Understanding these physical and chemical parameters is fundamental knowledge necessary not only for discovering life or signs of life on other planets, but also for understanding our own terrestrial environment. Therefore, astrobiology pushes us to combine different perspectives such as the conditions on the primitive Earth, the physicochemical limits of life, exploration of habitable environments in the Solar System, and the search for signatures of life in exoplanets. Chemists, biologists, geologists, planetologists and astrophysicists are contributing extensively to this interdisciplinary research field.From 2011 to 2014, the European Space Agency (ESA) had the initiative to gather a Topical Team of interdisciplinary scientists focused on astrobiology to review the profound transformations in the field that have occurred since the beginning of the new century. The presentpaper is an interdisciplinary review of current research in astrobiology, covering the major advances and main outlooks in the field. The following subjects will be reviewed and most recent discoveries will be highlighted: the new understanding of planetary system formation including the specificity of the Earth among the diversity of planets, the origin of water on Earth and its unique combined properties among solvents for the emergence of life, the idea that the Earth could have been habitable during the Hadean Era, the inventory of endogenous and exogenous sources of organic matter and new concepts about how chemistry could evolve towards biological molecules and biological systems. In addition, many new findings show the remarkable potential life has for adaptation and survival in extreme environments.All those results from different fields of science are guiding our perspecti, info:eu-repo/semantics/published