#ground-based_observations

#comet landing descent image – 51m
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/09/30/comet-landing-descent-image-51-m

This is #Rosetta's last image of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, taken shortly before impact, an estimated 51 m above the surface. The image was taken with the #osiris wide-angle camera on 30 September 2016. The image scale is about 5 mm/pixel and the image measures about 2.4 m across.

#Ground-based_observations #Images #Instruments ##CometLanding #rosetta

#science ‘til the very end
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/09/28/science-til-the-very-end

Rosetta will collect science data until the very end of its descent on Friday. The opportunity to study a #comet at such close proximity makes the descent phase one of the most exciting of the entire mission. A summary of the goals of the #Instruments that are operating during the descent are provided below: OSIRIS During the descent to the small comet lobe from an initial starting point of an altitude of around 19 km, the OSIRIS cameras (both narrow- and wide-angle) will first image the regions of the large lobe that it passes over. As the spacecraft approaches the small lobe, the cameras will target the walls of the Ma’at pits. The very high resolution data of these features will provide important information for our understanding of how activity is driven on the comet and maybe how (...)

#Comet_67P #Comets #Images #Landing ##CometLanding ##CometWatch #ground-based_observations #instruments #navcam #rosetta

#Rosetta in numbers
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/09/27/rosetta-in-numbers

Some impressive numbers from #rosetta's mission. Click for full res! Summary Rosetta’s mission lasted 12 years 6 months and 28 days, from launch on 2 March 2004 to mission end on 30 September 2016. During that time, the spacecraft travelled some 7.9 billion km, including three gravity assist flybys at Earth and one at Mars, and two asteroid flybys. Travelling from Earth and eventually out towards the orbit of Jupiter, the vast distance between the spacecraft and the Sun, and spacecraft and Earth, has impacted on available solar power and data downlink capabilities respectively, as detailed in the graphic. The majority of remaining figures shown apply to Rosetta’s time at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, between 6 August 2014 and the end of September 2016, although navigation camera images (...)

#Fun_stuff #Operations #Outreach #Science ##LivingWithAComet #ground-based_observations #manoeuvre #science

#Rosetta measures production of #water at comet over two years
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/09/27/rosetta-measures-production-of-water-at-comet-over-two-years

Over the past two years, #rosetta has kept a close eye on many properties of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, tracking how these changed along the comet’s orbit. A very crucial aspect concerns how much water vapour a comet releases into space, and how the water production rate varies at different distances from the Sun. For the first time, Rosetta enabled scientists to monitor this quantity and its evolution in situ over two years. In a new study led by Kenneth C. Hansen of the University of Michigan, in the US, measurements of water production rate based on data from #rosina, the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis, are compared with water measurements from other Rosetta #Instruments. The combination of all instruments shows an overall increase of the production of (...)

#Ground-based_observations #Science #dust #ground-based_observations #miro #rpc-ica #simulations #VIRTIS

#Rosetta’s #comet contains ingredients for life
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/05/27/rosettas-comet-contains-ingredients-for-life

This story is mirrored from the ESA Web Portal Ingredients regarded as crucial for the origin of life on Earth have been discovered at the comet that ESA’s #rosetta spacecraft has been probing for almost two years. They include the amino acid glycine, which is commonly found in proteins, and phosphorus, a key component of DNA and cell membranes. Scientists have long debated the important possibility that water and organic molecules were brought by asteroids and #Comets to the young Earth after it cooled following its formation, providing some of the key building blocks for the emergence of life. While some comets and asteroids are already known to have water with a composition like that of Earth’s oceans, Rosetta found a significant difference at its comet – fuelling the debate on their (...)

#Comet_67P #Instruments #Science ##perihelion2015 #activity #ground-based_observations #instruments

CometWatch 19 May
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/05/27/cometwatch-19-may

This week’s CometWatch entry is an image of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko taken with #Rosetta's #navcam on 19 May 2016, when the spacecraft was 7.6 km from the centre of the #comet nucleus and about 5.6 km from the surface. This close-up view shows a portion of the comet’s southern hemisphere, on the large lobe, around the Bes region. The image reveals the diverse appearance of the surface on this portion of the nucleus, with rugged and smooth patches, several cross-cutting fracture lines and a multitude of #boulders of various sizes. Also released this week was an impressive view captured by #rosetta's #osiris wide-angle camera of the nearby #Imhotep region, also on the large comet lobe. The image, taken only 7 km from the nucleus centre (about 5 km from the surface) on 25 May, is (...)

#Ground-based_observations #Images #Instruments #Science ##CometWatch #ground-based_observations #Subaru

#Rosetta’s big day in the Sun
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/08/13/rosettas-big-day-in-the-sun

ESA’s #rosetta today witnessed #Comet_67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko making its closest approach to the Sun. The exact moment of #perihelion occurred at 02:03 GMT this morning when the #comet came within 186 million km of the Sun. Read the full story and see the latest #Images on the ESA Web Portal. (coming soon on the blog too)

#Ground-based_observations #Instruments #Science ##perihelion2015

#amateur_astronomers keeping an eye on the #comet
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/08/07/amateur-astronomers-keeping-an-eye-on-the-comet

This post is an interview with Padma A. Yanamandra-Fisher, a Senior Research Scientist at the Space Science Institute, USA, and the #rosetta Coordinator of Amateur Observations for 67P/C-G. Q: When did the amateur campaign to observe Rosetta’s comet start? A: The first observations of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by amateur astronomers for this stretch of the comet’s orbit, leading to the 2015 #perihelion, were performed in March 2014. At the time, the comet was very faint and only visible from the southern hemisphere, with a magnitude around 20, just at the limit of detection by small telescopes. In addition, the comet was in a highly dense star field and not always easy to image. From March to November 2014, we received about a dozen or so decent #Images from amateurs located at (...)

#Ground-based_observations ##perihelion2015 #ground-based_observations

First release of #Rosetta comet phase data from four orbiter #Instruments
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/08/03/first-release-of-rosetta-comet-phase-data-from-four-orbiter-instruments

ESA’s #rosetta downlink and archive teams are very happy to announce the release today of the first wave of Rosetta instrument data from the “comet pre-landing phase” via the Planetary #Science Archive. Data from four #instruments are included in this release: COSIMA, OSIRIS, ROSINA, and RPC-MAG. After Rosetta woke up from 31 months hibernation in January 2014, its scientific instruments were turned back on and checked out before being used to study #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during the approach, rendezvous, and escort phases. As agreed between ESA and the funding bodies responsible for Rosetta’s instruments, their data are initially made available to the corresponding scientific teams for first analysis, with a significant number of Rosetta papers published based on these data, as (...)

#ground-based_observations #science

Chasing a comet from Earth – update on the professional observing campaign
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/07/24/chasing-a-comet-from-earth-update-on-the-professional-observing-campaign

An interview with Colin Snodgrass of the Open University, UK, who coordinates a consortium of professional astronomers observing #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from Earth in support of the Rosetta mission. Q: Rosetta has been ’living’ with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for almost a year now. How was this year from the perspective of the professional astronomers observing the comet with telescopes on Earth? A: It has been a very exciting year for everyone in comet science, following the results from Rosetta, but thankfully the ground-based view of 67P didn’t get too exciting yet – the comet largely followed our predictions in terms of its total brightness, which is reassuring as it allows us to have confidence in our plans for observing (and for Rosetta). We watched the comet grow (...)

#CometWatch #Ground-based_observations #Images ##CometWatch #activity #ground-based_observations

Getting to know #Rosetta’s #comet: boundary conditions
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/07/15/getting-to-know-rosettas-comet-boundary-conditions

In January the first maps of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko were published, identifying 19 geomorphologically distinct regions on its surface. Six months on and much more work has been done on refining the boundaries between these regions. This blog post showcases some of the OSIRIS #Images acquired from close orbit and presented in a new paper that have enabled an in-depth study of the different regions and their boundaries. This post was prepared with inputs from lead author M. Ramy El-Maarry from the University of Bern, who introduces this post with an inside story on how some of the regional names were chosen: “Early on in the mapping phase, we decided on naming the regions of the comet using names of ancient Egyptian deities. We wanted to adhere to the ancient Egyptian theme of (...)

#Instruments #Science #ground-based_observations #rosetta #science

CometWatch from Earth – 22 May
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/06/12/cometwatch-from-earth-22-may

Astronomers using ESO’s ground-based Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile are watching the development of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko’s coma and tail from Earth. This image is based on data acquired on 22 May and is about 300 000 km wide at the distance of the #comet. The comet’s dusty coma and tail is swept away from the Sun, which is towards the left of the image in this orientation. The tail can be seen to stretch at least 120 000 km in this relatively shallow image, and in deeper #Images, the coma alone is estimated to be at least 80–100 000 km across. As each pixel in this image spans roughly 400 km at the comet, both #Rosetta and the nucleus of 67P/C-G are too small to be resolved. But images like these provide important context information for the images taken by the spacecraft (...)

#Ground-based_observations #ground-based_observations #rosetta

Rosetta ground based campaign: #Comet_67P/C-G recovered on 13 April
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/04/16/rosetta-ground-based-campaign-comet-67pc-g-recovered-on-13-april

This post is based on an article published on the NASA JPL Rosetta science blog. #comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is back! In fact, the comet has been in sight for Rosetta for many months, but since the end of last year it was not possible to observe it with telescopes on Earth because it was in solar conjunction. But now the comet has been recovered by amateur astronomers Jean-Francois Soulier, Jean-Gabriel Bosch and Alain Maury, who observed it from Chile on 13 April 2015 at a magnitude of of 16.8. Congratulations to the observers! Padma A. Yanamandra-Fisher, Rosetta Coordinator of the Amateur Observations for Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, would like to alert the amateur astronomer community that 67P/C-G has now been recovered post-solar conjunction and invite them to participate (...)

#Ground-based_observations #ground-based_observations

Rosetta ground based campaign: calling all amateur astronomers
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/04/08/rosetta-ground-based-campaign-calling-all-amateur-astronomers

This post is based on an article published on the NASA JPL Rosetta science blog. Are you an amateur astronomer? The Rosetta mission has an opportunity for you, one that will allow you to collaborate with professional astronomers and study a #comet in tandem with a real space mission. Padma A. Yanamandra-Fisher, who is the Rosetta Coordinator of Amateur Observations for Comet 67P/C-G, would like to alert the amateur astronomer community and invite them to participate in a campaign to observe this comet during the coming months. She says: “We are looking to bring an entire community of professional and amateur observers together. When else can you observe a comet at the same time a spacecraft is viewing it at close proximity and escorting it to perihelion, and be able to correlate both sets (...)

#Ground-based_observations #activity #ground-based_observations