[meteorite-list] Rosetta Comet Fires Its Jets

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2014 16:29:28 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201410022329.s92NTSbf000397_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-335

Rosetta Comet Fires Its Jets
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
October 02, 2014

The four images that make up a new montage of comet
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko were taken on September 26, 2014 by the
European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft. At the time, Rosetta was
about 16 miles (26 kilometers) from the center of the comet.

In the montage, a region of jet activity can be seen at the neck of the
comet. These jets, originating from several discrete locations, are a
product of ices sublimating and gases escaping from inside the nucleus.

The overlapping and slightly dissimilar angles of the four images that
compose the montage are a result of the combined effect of the comet
rotating between the first and last images taken in the sequence (about
10 degrees over 20 minutes), and the spacecraft movement during that
same time.

Launched in March 2004, Rosetta was reactivated in January 2014 after a
record 957 days in hibernation. Rosetta is composed of an orbiter and
lander. Its objectives since arriving at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
earlier this month are to study the celestial object up close in
unprecedented detail, prepare for landing a probe on the comet's nucleus
in November, and after the landing, track the comet's changes through
2015 as it sweeps past the sun.

Comets are time capsules containing primitive material left over from
the epoch when the sun and its planets formed. Rosetta's lander will
obtain the first images taken from a comet's surface and will provide
comprehensive analysis of the comet's possible primordial composition by
drilling into the surface. Rosetta also will be the first spacecraft to
witness at close proximity how a comet changes as it is subjected to the
increasing intensity of the sun's radiation. Observations will help
scientists learn more about the origin and evolution of our solar system
and the role comets may have played in seeding Earth with water, and
perhaps even life.

Rosetta is an ESA mission with contributions from its member states and
NASA. Rosetta's Philae lander is provided by a consortium led by the
German Aerospace Center, Cologne; Max Planck Institute for Solar System
Research, Gottingen; National Center of Space Studies of France (CNES),
Paris; and the Italian Space Agency, Rome. NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, California, a division of the California
Institute of Technology, manages the U.S. participation in the Rosetta
mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information on the U.S. instruments aboard Rosetta, visit:

http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov

More information about Rosetta is available at:

http://www.esa.int/rosetta
Received on Thu 02 Oct 2014 07:29:28 PM PDT