Seen here is a spacecraft selfie taken by the Rosetta space probe some 271 million miles (436 million km) away from Earth and about 50 km away from the 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko comet. The image was taken on 7 September 2014 and captures the side of the Rosetta spacecraft and one of Rosetta’s 14 m-long solar wings, with 67P/C-G in the background. Two images with different exposure times were combined to bring out the faint details in this very high contrast situation. [source]
Churyumov-Gerasimenko is the destination of the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission, launched on 2 March 2004. The Rosetta spacecraft rendezvoused with the comet on 6 August 2014 and entered orbit on 10 September 2014. Rosetta’s lander, Philae, is scheduled to land on the comet’s surface on 11 November 2014.
The Rosetta mission will achieve many historic firsts:
– Rosetta will be the first spacecraft to orbit a comet’s nucleus
– It will be the first spacecraft to fly alongside a comet as it heads towards the inner Solar System
– Rosetta will be the first spacecraft to examine from close proximity how a frozen comet is transformed by the warmth of the Sun
– Shortly after its arrival at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the Rosetta orbiter will despatch a robotic lander for the first controlled touchdown on a comet nucleus
– The Rosetta lander’s instruments will obtain the first images from a comet’s surface and make the first in situ analysis to find out what it is made of
– On its way to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Rosetta will pass through the main asteroid belt, with the option to be the first European close encounter with one or more of these primitive objects
– Rosetta will be the first spacecraft ever to fly close to Jupiter’s orbit using solar cells as its main power source
– Scientists will be eagerly waiting to compare Rosetta’s results with previous studies by ESA’s Giotto spacecraft and by ground-based observatories. These have shown that comets contain complex organic molecules – compounds that are rich in carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen
Intriguingly, these are the elements which make up nucleic acids and amino acids, the essential ingredients for life as we know it. Did life on Earth begin with the help of comet seeding? Rosetta may help us to find the answer to this fundamental question. [source]
