#far_excursion

#CometWatch 27 March
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/04/01/cometwatch-27-march

Last week, #Rosetta embarked on an excursion around 1000 km in the anti-sunward direction to study the wider coma, tail and plasma environment of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This week’s CometWatch is an image taken on the outward leg of the excursion, on 27 March, when the spacecraft was 329 km from the nucleus. In February and March, #rosetta spent several weeks at very close distances from the comet nucleus, which overfilled the field of view of the #navcam, providing us with striking views of the surface. During the current excursion, instead, we can enjoy again a view of the full nucleus and the environment around it. In this CometWatch image, the small comet lobe is on the left and the large one on the right. The image was taken at a very large phase angle of about 159 degrees, (...)

#Images #activity #far_excursion

#CometWatch 1 October
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/10/08/cometwatch-1-october

Today’s CometWatch entry is an image from #Rosetta’s #navcam taken on 1 October 2015, at a distance of 1323 km from the nucleus of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The scale is 113 m/pixel and the image measures 115 km across. The contrast was increased to bring out the #comet's activity. From this perspective, the double-lobed shape of the nucleus is not as obvious as it is in some of the more iconic #Images of 67P/C-G; in this view, the large lobe is in the foreground, on the left, while the small lobe can be seen in the background, towards the right. The #Imhotep region dominates the view on the large lobe. To its right, parts of the newly identified regions on the comet’s #southern_hemisphere are also visible: Anhur and Khonsu on the large lobe, Sobek on the neck and Wosret on the small (...)

#far_excursion #rosetta

#CometWatch 30 September – Far, far away
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/10/02/cometwatch-30-september-far-far-away

Today’s CometWatch entry is an image taken by #Rosetta’s #navcam on 30 September 2015, about 1488 km from the nucleus of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The image was taken a few hours after the spacecraft had reached the farthest point – 1500 km from the nucleus – on its #far_excursion to study the coma and plasma environment of 67P/C-G on a broader scale. The scale is 127 m/pixel and the image measures 130 km across. The contrast was increased to reveal the #comet's #activity. In this orientation, the small comet lobe is on the left and the large lobe on the right. The last time #rosetta was at similar distances from the comet nucleus was in late July 2014, during the last few days of the ’chasing’ phase, before the spacecraft arrived at 67P/C-G on 6 August 2014. For a qualitative (...)

#Images

#Rosetta’s #far_excursion to study the #coma at large
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/09/18/rosettas-far-excursion-to-study-the-coma-at-large

Next week, on 23 September, #rosetta will depart on a three-week excursion that will take it up to 1500 km from the nucleus of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, much farther than it has been since arriving at the comet in August 2014. The main #Science goal driving this course of action is to study the coma of 67P/C-G on a broader scale while the comet’s activity is still high in the post-perihelion phase. While almost all #Instruments on Rosetta will be operating during the excursion, this exploration of the coma at large will be especially interesting to study the #plasma environment of the comet with the Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC) instruments. In particular, scientists are aiming at detecting the #bow_shock, a boundary between the comet’s magnetosphere and the ambient solar wind. (...)

#Comets #Operations #magnetic_field #rpc