From
Thursday:
Rosetta's Selfie
Image Credit:
ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA
Explanation:
This Rosetta spacecraft selfie
was snapped on October 7th.
At the time the spacecraft was about 472 million kilometers
from planet Earth,
but only 16 kilometers
from the surface of
comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Looming beyond the spacecraft near the top of the frame,
dust and gas stream away from the comet's curious
double-lobed nucleus
and bright sunlight glints off one of Rosetta's 14 meter
long solar arrays.
In fact, two exposures,
one short and one long, were combined to record the
dramatic
high contrast scene using the CIVA camera system
on Rosetta's still-attached Philae lander.
Its chosen
primary landing site is visible
on the smaller lobe of the nucleus.
This is the last image anticipated from Philae's cameras
before the lander separates from Rosetta on November 12.
Shortly after separation Philae will take another image
looking back toward the orbiter, and
begin its descent
to the nucleus of the comet.
Sixteen kilometers? Looks more like sixteen feet.
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