Tuesday

The ESA Rosetta spacecraft performed the most successful in-depth investigation of a comet ever performed during its mission at 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. During the mission a multitude of ground-based observatories also monitored the comet. These gave a global view of the comet, as well as allowing eventual linkage of the Rosetta measurements to ground-based observations. We will report the results of ground-based optical spectroscopy throughout the primary mission. Gas emission due to the bright emission band of CN was monitored throughout the mission, together with more sporadic measurements of OH, CN and C2. The spectra also allowed the dust mass-loss rates to be estimated during the mission. These have been compared the behaviour of the comet in previous orbits, the measurements from Rosetta, plus other studies.