Thursday, September 11, 2014

A selfie from space


The Rosetta spacecraft, currently hundreds of millions of miles from Earth as it prepares to drop a lander onto Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, has taken this fascinating photograph of parts of itself, with the comet some 30 miles in the background.  (Click the image for a much larger view.)




And here's a closer look at the comet's surface, taken from only a few miles away.  Again, click the picture for a larger view.




(All images are courtesy of the European Space Agency mission Web site.)

It's going to be a tough job finding a spot smooth enough for the lander to put down safely.  My hat's off to the mission crew, and all involved in the ten-year-long mission to get Rosetta to its destination.  If all goes well, we'll learn a great deal about our solar system.

Peter

2 comments:

Evyl Robot Michael said...

Remember back when the U.S. had the best space program?

Crotalus said...

If I recall, the Bible says that a mountain will fall into the sea. Well, we can see from this picture that that's what a comet is--rock and ice. A mountain floating in space.