Comets: Tracers of Solar System Formation and Evolution—Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Rosetta Mission Launch

Dear Colleagues,

The Rosetta findings have brought cometary science to a new level. The interpretation of the acquired data has driven a large-scale revision of our understanding of comet formation and is also leading us to reconsider several established concepts related to the formation and evolution of the Solar System. Moreover, this has broader implications regarding comet composition and formation, among other phenomena, in fields including astrophysics, astrochemistry and astrobiology. This Special Issue aims to gather current advances in various aspects of cometary science together with planetary formation theories. The Issue will focus on reviewing state-of-the-art cometary on the nuclei formation paradigm based on the Rosetta results while also taking into account data accumulated through studies over the past 20 years from observation, laboratory investigations and modeling results. This unique and timely collection of papers on the role of comets in the Solar System’s formation and evolution will be critical for identifying new scientific goals for the post-Rosetta era and future cometary space missions (e.g., Comet Interceptor).

Furthermore, recent high-resolution ALMA observations of protoplanetary disks have raised interest in the study of solid bodies in disks at different scales, from sub-micrometric grains up to solid bodies hundreds of meters in size, for which dynamic evolution is governed by the interaction between the gas and dust in the disk. Such observations shed light on the formation and migration scenarios of comets in planetary systems.

This Special Issue welcomes papers presenting new results on:

• The temporal evolution of the Solar System:
• From pre-solar clouds to dust and icy grains (cometary ices in the protoplanetary discs, dust grains formation and growth, formation of the Solar System);
• Mass transport and mixing within the Solar System(radial mixing and planet migration); 
• Formation and dynamics of pebbles (inward-drifting pebbles feed the growth of terrestrial planets and Rosetta results on pebble structure of comets);
• Planetesimal formation/evolution from planetesimals to comets (collisional and dynamical evolution, streaming instabilities, rubble piles, comets formation, formation of the comets reservoirs).

• Cometary activity, composition and structure of cometary nuclei—observations, laboratory investigations and modeling;
• Protoplanetary disk observation studies (e.g., ALMA) on cometary formation and migration in planetary systems.

Review papers on these topics are also welcome.

Dr. Stavro Ivanovski
Guest Editor

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• comets
• protoplanetary disks
• space missions/Rosetta
• planetary formation
• dust and pebble dynamics
• cometary ices