ESA - Rosetta - Rosetta teams up with New Horizons

About Rosetta

Rosetta at a glance Europe's comet chaser Why 'Rosetta'?

About the spacecraft

The Rosetta orbiter Orbiter: Instruments The Rosetta lander Lander: Instruments

About the journey

The long trek Debris of the Solar System: Asteroids Asteroid (2867) Steins: a portrait Life and survival in deep space Long-distance communication The Rosetta ground segment

About the arrival

Comets - an introduction Comet 67P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko Comet rendezvous Giotto - ESA's first comet mission

Meet the team

Project Manager Project Scientist

Multimedia

VideoTalk 3D Flash 'model'Rosetta images Rosetta videos Rosetta Animations Rosetta wallpaper Life of a comet

Services

Frequently asked questions Comments

Article Images

Rosetta teams up with New Horizons

2 March 2007

Back to article

Download:

HI-RES JPEG (Size: 1431 kb)

Although the main mission of NASA's New Horizons is to explore the Pluto system and the Kuiper Belt of icy, rocky objects, the spacecraft first flew by the solar system's largest planet, Jupiter, on 28 February 2007 — just a little over a year after launch. In this artist's rendering, New Horizons soars past Jupiter as the volcanic moon Io passes between the spacecraft and planet.

Credits: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute (JHUAPL/SwRI)

Back to article

A drawing of space near Jupiter, showing a portion of the radiation belts (in red), the Io torus (green) and the Europa torus (blue). The blue and green belts come from the atmospheres of the moons Europa and Io.

In a coordinated observation campaign started at the end of February 2007, ESA's Rosetta and NASA's New Horizon spacecraft are studying Jupiter's space environment, while travelling on their way to their respective destinations - comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and the Pluto system.

The picture comes from measurements taken by the Cassini spacecraft.

Credits: NASA

Back to article

Download:

HI-RES JPEG (Size: 406 kb)

This image of Jupiter is produced from a 2x2 mosaic of photos taken by the New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), and assembled by the LORRI team at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

The telescopic camera snapped the images during a 3-minute, 35-second span on February 10, when the spacecraft was 29 million kilometres from Jupiter. At this distance, Jupiter's diameter was 1,015 LORRI pixels - nearly filling the imager's entire (1,024-by-1,024 pixel) field of view. Features as small as 290 kilometers are visible.

Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

Back to article

Download:

HI-RES JPEG (Size: 353 kb)

HI-RES TIFF (Size: 11 720 kb)

During the course of its journey to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Rosetta is making use of several gravitational ‘kicks’: one at Mars on 25 February 2007 (250 km distance) and three at Earth: 4 March 2005 (1995 km distance), 13 November 2007 (5301 km distance) and 13 November 2009 (2500 km distance). Manoeuvres to correct Rosetta's orbit take place before and after each swing-by.

Credits: ESA, image by C.Carreau

Rosetta Blog

ESA's comet chaser

Space Operations &
Situational Awareness

More news

Rosetta delivers Phobos transit animation and 'sees' Mars in stereo Rosetta successfully swings by Mars Stunning view of Rosetta skimming past Mars Rosetta lander measures Mars' magnetic environment around close approach Beautiful new images from Rosetta’s approach to Mars: OSIRIS UPDATE Rosetta swingby update - 03:13 CET 25 February Rosetta swingby update - 22:00 CET 24 February Timeline: Mars swingby at 36 000 km/hr ESApod (video) "Rosetta in critical Mars swingby"ESApod (video) "Rosetta swingby"Rosetta correctly lined up for critical Mars swingby ESOC swings into action for Rosetta swingby ESA's spacecraft managers: the 'Right Stuff'