Rosetta mission indicates comet 67P is not magnetic

BBC : Tiny grains of magnetic materials in meteorites have led researchers to propose that in the early universe, magnetic fields may have helped dust in the protoplanetary disk to accrete and form larger bodies. But how much accretion was due to magnetism and how much to gravity or other forces has been unknown. Because comets may provide clues to the role of magnetic fields in the formation of larger solar-system bodies, the European Space Agency sent the Rosetta spacecraft to get a closer look at one—comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Last year Rosetta deployed a lander to the comet’s surface and collected magnetic field measurements from above and along the surface as the lander bounced several times before coming to a stop. From those data, researchers were able to determine that the comet has no internal magnetic field of its own. If the comet is indicative of most, then forces other than magnetism must have been responsible for the origin and evolution of larger planetary bodies, they conclude.