Stunning close up detail focusing on a smooth
region on the ‘base’ of the ‘body’ section of
comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The
image clearly shows a range of features,
including boulders, craters and steep cliffs.
Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team
Four-image montage comprising images taken
by Rosetta’s navigation camera on 2 October
from a distance of 19 km from the centre of
the comet. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM
diminutive tail will only be visible
with a telescope. From the surface,
Philae may only see a thin fog as a
hint that the process is occurring;
hardly the conflagrations you saw
in the movies Deep Impact and
Armageddon. Still, the instruments
on Rosetta and Philae will be able to
sniff what comes out to form the tail
and search for organic molecules
and amino acids frozen for billions of
years while the comet has lapped
the Sun countless times. Even at its
closest point to the Sun, it will be
invisible to the naked eye, some 100
times fainter than the faintest star you
can see. Even a small telescope will
have trouble distinguishing it from the
countless other faint stars in the field.
All in all, it will be fun to see
what turns up in the Rosetta and
Philae images and data from this
comet! Astronomy is always full of
surprises when you see something
at high resolution for the first time.
Landslides on comets...who would
have thought?
Dr. Sten Odenwald is an
astronomer and educator at the
National Institute of Aerospace.
He also runs an online resource
called The Astronomy Cafe
(www.astronomycafe.net).
Site J, the location of the primary landing site for Rosetta’s lander Philae, is shown in these two images. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team
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