The European Space Agency has narrowed down their original ten landing sites for the Rosetta mission on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, down to five final landing sites (A, B, C, I and J). Landing site C was chosen as a backup site for Philae’s planned November 11, 2014 landing over the other potential landing sites because it had a higher level of illumination and fewer boulders.
NASA’s NEOWISE telescope spotted Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring shortly before it is expected to fly by Mars in the fall of this year. In this composite image encompassing four frames, the comet can be seen in multiple positions as it traverses through space relative to the stars in the background. At the time that these pictures were taken, Comet Siding Spring was approximately 175 million miles (1.88 astronomical units) from the Sun.
This picture of comet Siding Spring also provides a view of the radio galaxy Fornax A (NGC1316) near the upper right corner.
Comet Catalina (C/2013 UQ4) was originally being tracked as an asteroid but later turned out to be a comet. This latest discovery was made earlier this year by Artyom Novichonok (who also helped discover Comet ISON) and Taras Prystavski using a remote telescope in Siding Spring, Australia. Comet Catalina was closest to the Sun (at its perihelion) on July 6, 2014 and was extremely active shortly thereafter. This image was taken by NASA’s asteroid hunting NEOWISE space survey program.
After 10 years and six billion kilometers, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft finally caught up with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It will study this tiny comet for the next fifteen months including a historic event in November when the Rosetta spacecraft will deploy its small robotic lander (Philae) to land on the rock and ice made comet. The Rosetta lander will take samples from the comet and help investigate the composition and history of the comet. The mission will also study the comet as it makes its journey around the Sun. This footage is from the ESA’s mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany.
The European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft photographed Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko/67P from a distance of about 12,000 km using its Onboard Scientific Imaging System (OSIRIS). This image has been enhanced with interpolated data. The Rosetta spacecraft is expected to further study Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko/67P and in an unprecedented event for scientific study, eventually land on the comet in August 2014. These adn future observations and analysis by Rosetta will help scientists learn more about the origin and evolution of our solar system and the role comets have played.
