[meteorite-list] OSIRIS Spots Philae Drifting Across Comet

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 10:33:51 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201411181833.sAIIXpiN002143_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/17/osiris-spots-philae-drifting-across-the-comet/

OSIRIS spots Philae drifting across the comet
European Space Agency
November 17, 2014

[Images]
These incredible images show the breathtaking journey of Rosetta's Philae
lander as it approached and then rebounded from its first touchdown on
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 12 November 2014.
Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

The mosaic comprises a series of images captured by Rosetta's OSIRIS camera
over a 30 minute period spanning the first touchdown. The time of each
of image is marked on the corresponding insets and is in GMT. A comparison
of the touchdown area shortly before and after first contact with the
surface is also provided.

The images were taken with Rosetta's OSIRIS narrow-angle camera when the
spacecraft was 17.5 km from the comet centre, or roughly 15.5 km from
the surface. They have a resolution of 28 cm/pixel and the enlarged insets
are 17 x 17 m.

>From left to right, the images show Philae descending towards and across
the comet before touchdown. The image taken after touchdown, at 15:43
GMT, confirms that the lander was moving east, as first suggested by the
data returned by the CONSERT experiment, and at a speed of about 0.5 m/s.

The final location of Philae is still not known, but after touching down
and bouncing again at 17:25 GMT, it reached there at 17:32 GMT. The imaging
team is confident that combining the CONSERT ranging data with OSIRIS
and navcam images from the orbiter and images from near the surface and
on it from Philae's ROLIS and CIVA cameras will soon reveal the lander's
whereabouts.

[Ed's note - added for clarification: Touchdown occurred at 15:34 GMT
spacecraft time (with the signal received on Earth at 16:03 GMT); the
image marked 'touchdown' in the graphic above was taken after touchdown,
at 15:43 GMT, but clearly shows the evidence of the touchdown event when
comparing with an image taken previously]

The insets are provided separately below (the timestamps are recorded
in the filenames).
All images credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
Received on Tue 18 Nov 2014 01:33:51 PM PST