Micro-Imaging Dust Analysis System (MIDAS)

The Micro-Imaging Dust Analysis System (MIDAS) is one of several instruments on the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission which will study in-situ the environment around the active comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko as it flies into the inner Solar System. MIDAS is an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) designed to collect dust particles emitted from the comet, and then scan them with a very sharp needle-like tip to determine their 3D structure, size and texture with very high resolution (4 nanometers).

MIDAS is the first instrument capable of imaging the smallest cometary dust particles in-situ. Some interplanetary dust particles collected in the Earth's stratosphere have been shown to have a cometary origin, but their precise provenance is typically unknown. The Stardust mission returned many cometary dust particles, collected during a fast flyby of comet 81P/Wild in aerogel, but these were highly modified, crushed and melted during deceleration and return to Earth. MIDAS will be used primarily in particles a few micrometers in diameter or smaller.

By collecting and imaging dust particles —tiny pieces of rock, ice and Organic compounds — emitted from comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko as it passes through the inner Solar System, MIDAS address questions including:

Since comets are thought to be ancient, and contain material unchanged since their formation in the early Solar System, these questions will directly help support theories on the Solar System formation. The Principal Investigator is Mark Bentley from The Space Research Institute (IWF) in Austria. The hardware is contributed by universities in Austria, the Netherlands and Germany.

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