The Rosetta spacecraft orbiting around the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P) has provided researchers new vital information about formation of the comet’s atmosphere. The spacecraft has recorded strange data in ultraviolet readings from the icy body.

This news has coincided with the announcement recently made by NASA about a proposed plan to end the mission by hitting the orbiter into the surface of the comet near the site where the Philae lander came to rest after stumbling unsuccessfully.

A NASA instrument, known as Alice, is onboard the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft; it has offered researchers an opportunity to understand how atmosphere of the comet was built.

The Alice instrument found that the rapid break-up of water and carbon dioxide molecules spewing from the comet’s surface is triggered by electrons close to the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It debunked the previous belief that photons from the sun were responsible for the break-up.

“The discovery we are reporting is quite unexpected. It shows us the value of going to comets to observe them up close, since this discovery simply could not have been made from earth or earth orbit with any existing or planned observatory”, said Alan Stern, principal investigator for the Alice instrument at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado.

He said the discovery has helped fundamentally transform their knowledge about comets. Alice researchers are analyzing the emission from hydrogen and oxygen atoms broken from the water molecules. Their results will help them identify the location and structure of water plumes from the surface of the comet.