Tag: Rosetta

  • Photos from Rosetta’s Valentine’s Day comet close-up

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    Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft — six months into its mission at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko — made its closest flyby of the comet’s boulder-strewn nucleus Saturday, capturing photos and measurements to help scientists unravel how the duck-shaped body is evolving on its path around the sun. Rosetta flew just six kilometers — about 3.7 miles — from the…

  • Rosetta approaches comet 67P for a closer look

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    A single-frame image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from Rosetta’s navigation camera taken Feb. 9 at a range of 105 km, showing part of the nucleus enveloped in jets of dust and gas. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM The Rosetta spacecraft neared its comet Saturday, targeting a close flyby within four miles of the tiny world’s jagged nucleus to gain…

  • New discoveries from Rosetta put comet 67P in focus

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    This image from Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera shows part of a large fracture in the neck of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA Scientists have released new findings from the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission, adding fresh pages to a catalog of comet data that officials promise will swell with more discoveries over the…

  • Scientific riches await Philae comet lander, if it wakes up

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    This four-image mosaic comprises images taken from a distance of 20.1 kilometers (12.5 miles) from the center of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Dec. 10. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM Optimistic Europe’s hibernating Philae comet lander can be revived, mission controllers plan to try and contact the spacecraft as soon as January as the search narrows for the probe’s final…

  • Rosetta raises questions on how water got to Earth

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    A four-image mosaic of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko using images taken by Rosetta’s navigation camera on Dec. 7 at a distance of 19.7 kilometers (12.2 miles) from the center of the comet. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM New readings from the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission have challenged the theory that comets brought water to Earth in a series of…

  • Philae finds comet harbors organics

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    A view of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from Rosetta when it flew 10 kilometers away. Credit: ESA/NAVCAM Europe’s Philae lander found a surface as hard as ice and organic molecules after it bounced to a stop on a comet last week. Scientists looking over the spoils from the plucky little Philae probe released some of the first…

  • Rosetta camera sees Philae bouncing across comet

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    ESA PHOTO RELEASE These incredible images show the breathtaking journey of Rosetta’s Philae lander as it approached and then rebounded from its first touchdown on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on 12 November 2014. The mosaic comprises a series of images captured by Rosetta’s OSIRIS camera over a 30 minute period spanning the first touchdown. The time of…

  • Rosetta imagery shows Philae at first landing site

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    Images recorded by Rosetta’s navigation camera appear to show the lander, its shadow and the dust cloud kicked up by its first touchdown. Image: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM; pre-processed by Mikel Canania The first image in the sequence was taken on at 15:30 GMT on 12 November, just before the lander’s first touchdown; the second image was taken at 15:35…

  • Loss of contact with Philae

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    STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS “SPACE PLACE” & USED WITH PERMISSION Trapped in a forbidding jumble of sun-blocking cliffs and rocky debris, the Philae comet lander, its batteries nearly depleted, somehow managed to contact the Rosetta mothership Friday in true cliffhanger fashion, relaying stored science data back to Earth and receiving commands to turn in…

  • Comet lander’s batteries near exhaustion

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    STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS “SPACE PLACE” & USED WITH PERMISSION Comet from 40 meters. Credit: Copyright ESA/Rosetta/Philae/ROLIS/DLR   Trapped in rough, forbidding terrain with its solar panels draped in shadow, the Philae comet lander raced the clock Friday to carry out high-priority science operations, including an attempt to drill into the surface of the…