[meteorite-list] Rosetta's Comet Landing Site Close Up

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 16:00:37 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201410152300.s9FN0bLA007628_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4339
  
Rosetta's Comet Landing Site Close Up
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
October 15, 2014

A mosaic from the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft shows "Site
J," the primary landing site on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for the
mission's Philae lander. Rosetta is the first mission to attempt a soft
landing on a comet.

The mosaic comprises two images taken by Rosetta's OSIRIS narrow-angle
camera on Sept. 14, 2014, from a distance of about 19 miles (30
kilometers). The image scale is 1.6 feet (0.5 meters) per pixel. The red
ellipse is centered on the landing site and is approximately 1,600 feet
(500 meters) in diameter.

Site J is located on the smaller of the comet's two lobes. On Nov. 12,
the Rosetta spacecraft will release Philae at 01:03 a.m. PST/10:03
CET/09:03 UTC (the time the signal is received on Earth). Touchdown of
Philae on Site J is expected about seven hours later, at around 8 a.m.
PST/17:00 CET/16:00 UTC (Earth Received Time).

Launched in March 2004, Rosetta was reactivated in January 2014 after a
record 957 days in hibernation. Composed of an orbiter and lander,
Rosetta's objectives since arriving at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
earlier this month have been to study the celestial object up close in
unprecedented detail, prepare for landing a probe on the comet's nucleus
in November, and following the landing, track the comet's changes 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 a European Space Agency 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

Media Contact

DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle at jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov

Markus Bauer
European Space Agency, Noordwijk, Netherlands
011-31-71-565-6799
markus.bauer at esa.int

2014-356
Received on Wed 15 Oct 2014 07:00:37 PM PDT