#navcam

Space Science Image of the Week: #navcam close-ups
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/11/14/space-science-image-of-the-week-navcam-close-ups

A trio of the closest NAVCAM #Images of #Comet_67P-Churyumov Gerasimenko is featured as our ESA Space Science Image of the Week. During the last few weeks of its mission at #comet 67P/C–G, the Rosetta spacecraft ventured closer than it had ever been to the surface of the nucleus. Eventually, it came to rest on the small lobe of the comet in a daring descent on 30 September 2016. No navigation images were taken during the descent; the last five NAVCAM images were taken several hours earlier, between about 20 and 17 km from the comet centre. This montage features the three closest images of the comet’s surface taken by #Rosetta's navigation camera – acquired in the first half of September. The left image in the composite (also shown below) was taken on 8 September, some 2.6 from the comet surface. (...)

#CometWatch ##CometWatch #boulders #rosetta

#Rosetta’s last #navcam image
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/09/30/rosettas-last-navcam-image

Rosetta’s Navigation Camera captured five images shortly after the collision manoeuvre last night, which are being analysed by flight dynamics to confirm the spacecraft is on track to impact its target in the Ma’at region of Comet 67P/C-G later today. The last image returned from the spacecraft was taken at 00:59 UT onboard the spacecraft, and downlinked to Earth a couple of hours later. It was taken at a distance of 17.4 km from the centre of the comet. The image scale is 1.5m/pixel and the image measures about 1.5 km across. The five images were used by the flight team to update the estimate of the landing time and final pointing of the spacecraft. The revised impact time is now predicted as 10:38:32 UT+/- 2 minutes at the comet.Because of the 40 minute signal travel time between Rosetta and (...)

#CometWatch ##CometLanding ##CometWatch #science

#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

#CometWatch 18 September – a new view of #Rosetta’s impact site
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/09/23/cometwatch-18-september-a-new-view-of-rosettas-impact-site

As the #rosetta mission draws to a close next Friday, 30 September 2016, the CometWatch team here at ESA realised that this will be the last ’regular’ entry of this popular feature on the blog (*) through which we have shared a great deal of views of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko taken with Rosetta’s navigation camera (NAVCAM) since July 2014, shortly before Rosetta’s arrival at the #comet. As it happens, Rosetta recently took a new image of its final “landing” site on 67P/C-G, which we thought would make the perfect entry for this week’s CometWatch. The image was taken on 18 September 2016, when the spacecraft was 12.1 km from the centre of the comet. The image depicts the dust-covered terrains of #Ma'at, on the small comet lobe, where Rosetta is destined to make a controlled impact next (...)

#Images #Landing #Philae ##CometLanding #end_of_mission #landing_sites #navcam #osiris #philae

CometWatch – 31 August & 11 September
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/09/16/cometwatch-31-august-11-september

This week’s CometWatch entry is a double feature, with two #Images of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from #Rosetta's #navcam taken on 31 August and 11 September 2016, when the spacecraft was 8.8 and 9.8 km, respectively, from the centre of the comet nucleus. The 31 August image provides a dramatic view on the steep slopes of the #hathor region, on the small comet lobe. Hathor consists of a 900-m high cliff sloping down towards the comet’s neck, and is characterised by marked linear features, streaks and even small terraces. In the top left corner, a portion of the smooth terrains of #Hapi is visible; located on the comet’s neck, Hapi is covered in dusty material and punctuated with boulders. The 11 September image, instead, portrays a piece of the #Wosret region, on the opposite side of (...)

##CometWatch #rosetta

The great pit of Deir el-Medina
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/09/09/the-great-pit-of-deir-el-medina

On 30 September, #Rosetta will descend towards a smooth region in Ma’at, on the smaller of the two lobes of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It will target a region that is home to several active pits measuring over 100 m wide and over 50 m deep, with the hope to get some close-up glimpses of these fascinating features. The target site is seen in the image below of three pits in Ma’at (first presented in a paper published in July 2015); #rosetta will target the smooth region between the pits labelled Ma’at 02 and 03. The large, well-defined pit adjacent to the target site and identified in the image above as Ma’at 02 has now been named by the mission team as Deir el-Medina, after a pit in an ancient Egyptian town of the same name. The pit bears resemblance in appearance to the pit in the (...)

#Landing #Operations #Science ##CometLanding #comet #navcam #osiris

#CometWatch 22 August
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/09/02/cometwatch-22-august-3

This week’s CometWatch entry was taken with #Rosetta’s #navcam on 22 August 2016, when the spacecraft was 6.8 km from the centre of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The average distance to the surface is about 5.6 km, and with an image scale of 0.5 m/pixel, the image measures about 500 m across. The image shows part of the Ma’at region, close to where it transitions into Anuket and Hathor regions on the #comet’s small lobe. It shows a beautiful contrast between smooth, dust covered surfaces, and rather angular outcropping terrain and scattered debris. For more close-up images taken in the last week, be sure to check the OSIRIS image of the day website. The original 1024 x 1024 pixel image is provided (...)

#Comets #rosetta

Video report : the end is in sight
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/09/02/video-report-the-end-is-in-sight

Post-perihelion changes, close flybys, and preparing for end of mission!

#Comet_67P #Comets #Images #Instruments #Landing #Operations #Rosetta #Science ##CometLanding ##perihelion2015 #navcam #osiris #rosetta #science #trajectory

#CometWatch – late August round-up
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/08/26/cometwatch-late-august-round-up

This week’s CometWatch entry was taken with #Rosetta's #navcam on 17 August 2016, when the spacecraft was 13.9 km from the nucleus of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This close-up view shows a portion of the #Imhotep region, on the large #comet lobe. The top part of the image portrays the flat, smooth-covered portion of Imhotep, scattered with a variety of boulders of different sizes. Towards the top right is a cluster of three large boulders, including the 45-m sized Cheops, named after the Great Pyramid at Giza near Cairo in Egypt. Around the comet’s perihelion, #rosetta observed many spectacular changes on this portion of Imhotep (see blog post ’Comet surface changes before Rosetta’s eyes’). To have an idea of the surface changes, you can compare the new CometWatch with a number of (...)

#Images #Instruments #osiris

#CometWatch – early August round-up
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/08/12/cometwatch-early-august-round-up

Today’s CometWatch entry features a new image from #Rosetta’s #navcam (below) along with a round-up of #Images released from the OSIRIS narrow- and wide-angle cameras in the last week. The NAVCAM image, taken from a distance of about 10.6 km from #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 8 August, shows a spectacular close-up of details close to the boundary of Atum (foreground and left) and Anubis (the smoother region towards the top). To the left, the scene shows exposed layers with smoother material lying in between, which transitions into a heavily eroded zone before taking on a smoother appearance again in the centre, albeit scarred with fracture-like features cross-cutting at a range of scales. Layers can also be picked out towards the top right, some of which have the appearance of being (...)

#comet #rosetta

#CometWatch 6 August – Two years on
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/08/08/cometwatch-6-august-two-years-on

Two incredible years have passed since ESA’s #comet-chaser #Rosetta arrived at #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 6 August 2014. During that time #rosetta has mapped the comet’s curious shape and given us awe-inspiring views from near and far, spotting changes in its surface features and watching as jets of gas and dust stream out in to space – sometimes unexpectedly as sudden outbursts. The spacecraft has performed daring close flybys and made distant excursions to sample gas, dust and plasma at a range of distances, giving unparalleled insight into the processes that operate at the comet and how it interacts with its environment as it hurtles through space. In two years, the comet has travelled around 1.5 billion km along its orbit around the Sun, passing through perihelion last August – (...)

#Arrival #On_this_day #navcam

#CometWatch 24 July
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/07/29/cometwatch-24-july-2

This stunning view along the boundary between Hatmehit and Wosret was captured by #Rosetta’s #navcam on 24 July from a distance of 9.7 km to the centre of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The field of view includes the CONSERT search ellipse that has guided the search for #rosetta’s lander Philae since it landed unexpectedly in the yet-to-be identified location known as Abydos (check this animation for a reminder of the search area). The image also captures beautiful details of the cross-cutting fracture patterns that prevail in many locations all over the comet; they are particularly prominent towards the left of this scene. Numerous boulders cling to the surface, and in some places – notably in the lower left quadrant of the image – cast impressively long shadows across the comet’s (...)

##CometLanding

#CometWatch 18 July
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/07/22/cometwatch-18-july

This week’s CometWatch entry is an image of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from #Rosetta's #navcam, taken on 16 July 2016 when the spacecraft was 9.5 km from the centre of the comet nucleus. The view shows a portion of Ash, on the large comet lobe, in extraordinary detail, displaying the smooth coating of dust that characterises this region. The upper left corner of the frame reveals a small part of the neighbouring Aten region, which, in contrast to Ash, is not covered in dust. Smooth material covering another region of the comet, #Imhotep, also on the large lobe, was featured in another image from #rosetta's #osiris narrow-angle camera, published yesterday on the OSIRIS Image of the Day. The image was taken on 16 July, and also reveals boulders of various sizes (top left), rocky (...)

#Images #Instruments

#CometWatch 9 July
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/07/15/cometwatch-9-july

This week’s CometWatch image was taken with #Rosetta's #navcam on 9 July 2016, when the spacecraft was 11.7 km from the nucleus of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This close-up view shows a portion of the Khonsu region on the larger of the two comet lobes. Khonsu is part of the southern hemisphere of 67P/C-G. The image reveals a variety of fractured and smooth terrains, with a great number of #boulders of all sizes, including several large ones. It also includes a three-layered structure with a balancing boulder on top, which was also portrayed in previous #Images, for example the NAVCAM view featured as CometWatch 13 June, which shows the same region but from a broader perspective. Meanwhile, a view of Comet 67P/C-G from #rosetta's #osiris wide-angle camera was published on the OSIRIS (...)

#Instruments

#CometWatch 30 June
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/07/11/cometwatch-30-june

Today’s CometWatch entry, also featured as ESA Space Science Image of the Week, is an image of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko taken with #Rosetta's navigation camera (NAVCAM) on 30 June 2016, from a distance of 25.8 km. Depicted in the lower right part of the image is the region #hathor, a very intriguing portion of the small #comet lobe, where the head declines steeply towards the neck and body of the comet. This view shows a good fraction of the 900-m high cliff that forms Hathor, with marked linear features crossing the region from left to right. Perpendicular to these, additional streaks and even small terraces can be seen. Beyond the cliff of Hathor, on the right, are hints of the Ma’at region. In the upper right corner, smoother patches of the large comet lobe are visible, covered (...)

#Images #navcam #osiris #rosetta

#CometWatch 25 June
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/07/01/cometwatch-25-june-2

This week’s CometWatch image was taken with #Rosetta's #navcam on 25 June 2016, when the spacecraft was 16.7 km from the nucleus of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The image shows a portion of the large #comet lobe, with the neck region and a hint of the small lobe on the upper right. Dominated by the smooth terrains of Anubis, on the large lobe, this scene reveals the many boulders scattered across this region, as well as a number of surface features visible in the dust cover. A similar view of this area, taken from a comparable distance but different perspective, was featured in CometWatch 1 May. In the central left portion of the image, towards the upper edge of the nucleus, some elevated, shadow-casting structures mark the boundary between Anubis and Seth. Parts of the more complex (...)

#Images #Instruments #osiris #rosetta

#osiris data release – including “shadow” flyby
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/06/28/osiris-data-release-including-shadow-flyby

Remember the stunning image #Rosetta snapped of its own shadow last year? This was just one of twelve images taken by the OSIRIS narrow-angle camera during the 6 km flyby of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 14 February 2015 that captured the shadow, and which have today been released into the Archive Image Browser and the Planetary #Science Archive. This latest OSIRIS data release comprises 1357 narrow-angle camera #Images and 2162 wide-angle camera images from the period 20 December 2014 – 10 March 2015. During this time #rosetta was initially in ~28 km orbits around the #comet. In early February the spacecraft moved out to 142 km before swooping past the comet at 6 km on 14 February and away again (this video visualizes Rosetta’s trajectory at that time). The 14 February flyby was not (...)

#CometWatch ##CometWatch #instruments #navcam

#CometWatch 17 June
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/06/24/cometwatch-17-june

This week’s CometWatch entry soaks up the sights of a number of regions on both the small (right) and large (left) lobes of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The image was taken by #Rosetta’s #navcam on 17 June from a distance of 30.8 km, and the image measures about 2.7 km across. It gives a birds-eye-view onto the layered terraces in Seth (bottom left) and Babi (top left), with hints of the smooth dust-covered Ash region towards the bottom left corner. The boulder-strewn neck region, Hapi, lies in the centre of the image. Following the course of the neck ‘up’ towards the top of the frame, the boundary between Hapi and Aker is encountered. The view of the small lobe, to the right of the scene, is dominated by the dusty surfaces of Ma’at, and casts an impressive shadow over the landscape (...)

#comet #rosetta

#CometWatch 13 June
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/06/17/cometwatch-13-june

This image of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by #Rosetta’s #navcam on 13 June 2016 from a distance of 28.5 km to the centre of the #comet. The image captures the striking contrast of terrains between several regions on the comet’s large lobe. In the left corner parts of Imhotep can be identified, with an ‘accumulation basin’ and its surrounding terraces along the lower edge of the frame, and a scattering of smaller circular features above (see our ‘Inside Imhotep’ blog post for more about these features). The boundary with Khonsu to the right incorporates cross-cutting fractured terrain that transitions into a patch of smoother terrain with numerous boulders. This region includes a curious outcrop of three thick layers; look closely to see a boulder that appears to be performing a (...)

#rosetta

#CometWatch 2 June
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/06/10/cometwatch-2-june

This week’s CometWatch entry is an image of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko taken with #Rosetta's #navcam on 2 June 2016, when the spacecraft was 23.6 km from the #comet centre. In this orientation, the small comet lobe is in the right half of the image, while the large lobe is in the lower left. The smooth-covered terrains visible on the small lobe are part of Ma’at, a region blanketed in dust and punctuated with several #boulders, especially towards the lower edge in this view. Below the boulders is the scarp that separates Ma’at from Anuket, a rougher region, cast in shadow in this image, which declines steeply towards the comet neck. In the lower part of the image, on the neck region of Hapi, streaks of boulders stand out against a smooth cover of dust. Towards the left, parts of the (...)

#Images #Instruments #osiris #rosetta

The changing #comet – call for contributions
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/06/03/the-changing-comet-call-for-contributions

Do you enjoy poring over #Images of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko? Have you spotted any changes in its surface features since #Rosetta first arrived at the comet in August 2014? We are keen to hear from you! Between #navcam and #osiris, and not forgetting the regular “OSIRIS image of the day” images and our NAVCAM #CometWatch entries, there are over 20 000 images publicly available to browse covering the 667 days #rosetta has to date spent at the comet. Indeed, 780 new images have been added to our NAVCAM Archive Image Browser this week, covering the period 6 April – 3 May 2016. Thanks to the hard work of the Rosetta downlink and archive group, this means that from now on, every month you will be able to access the full set of NAVCAM images taken during the previous month, and be able to keep (...)

##perihelion2015 #activity

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

#CometWatch 15 May
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/05/20/cometwatch-15-may

This week’s CometWatch entry from #Rosetta’s #navcam was taken on 15 May 2016 when the spacecraft was 9.88 km from #comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This impressive close-up captures the relatively flat regions of Aker and Khepry on the comet’s small lobe. These regions are characterised by distinctive layers and in places cross-cutting fracture lines – these are particularly visible in the exposed faces at the top left. A number of large boulders can also be seen sitting within an island of smoother terrain towards the top of the view. The large comet lobe lies to the bottom left of this view with the ridge-like feature separating Sobek (foreground) from Bastet (behind and out of view). A small portion of boulder-strewn Hapi can also be seen at the foothill of Aker. The largely shadowed (...)

#rosetta

#CometWatch 1 May
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/05/10/cometwatch-1-may

This week’s CometWatch is an image taken with #Rosetta's #navcam on 1 May 2016, when the spacecraft was 18.8 km from the nucleus of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The view shows a portion of the large #comet lobe on the left, while hints of the neck and small lobe are visible in the lower right corner. On the large lobe, the image reveals the striking difference between the Atum region, on the left, and Anubis, on the right. The irregular terrains of Atum display the complex morphology of this region, with depressions, a wealth of linear features and only a few boulders. The adjacent Anubis, instead, is characterised by smooth terrains punctuated with several boulders. The sharp boundary separating Anubis and Seth is visible on the right edge, and a small portion of Anuket, on the (...)

#Images #rosetta

#CometWatch 19 April
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/04/22/cometwatch-19-april

This week’s CometWatch features an image obtained with #Rosetta's #navcam on 19 April 2016, 29.4 km from the nucleus of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. At these close distances, the #comet nucleus overfills the field of view of the camera. In this view, which is not centred on the comet, only a portion of the nucleus is in sight, with the small comet lobe up and the large lobe down. On the small lobe, which is casting shadows on the comet’s neck underneath, we can see the rugged terrains of the Bastet region. On the large lobe, the view is dominated by a smooth portion of Aker, just below the neck in this view, which gradually declines towards the rougher Khepry. In the lower right corner, a part of the Babi region is visible, with hints of the elongated Aten cast in shadow. A portion of (...)

#Instruments #hatmehit #Imhotep #osiris #rosetta