Rosetta Up Close: Star photographers announced
20 April 2005
Austria and Switzerland came out on top when the winners of the international 'Rosetta Up Close' photo contest were announced recently.
On 4 March, the Rosetta comet-chaser performed ESA's closest-ever Earth flyby. During its fleeting visit, the spacecraft swept over Europe and headed toward Mexico at a speed of 38,000 km/h. Photographers around the world were challenged to capture this historic event on camera.
Despite the difficulty in capturing images of the faint, fast-moving spacecraft, the competition attracted dozens of entries from Europe, USA, Canada and South Africa. The panel of judges from ESA's Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) – led by Rosetta scientist Detlef Koschny, a keen amateur astronomer - then swung into action.
They eventually selected eight winning images in two categories (still and animated). The best still image, obtained with a digital camera on a 60 cm telescope, was entered by Erich Meyer of the Davidschlag Observatory, Austria. It shows Rosetta about two hours before closest approach.
The winner of the animated section was Thomas Hugentobler of Switzerland. His series of digital images show Rosetta as a faint moving dot among the stars, four days before closest approach. At that time, the spacecraft was still 1.44 million km from Earth.
These star photographers have won some great prizes, including a VIP pass to attend the Venus Express launch.
Rosetta is on its way to explore Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This first Earth flyby gave it an essential boost on its 10-year, 7.1 billion km trek.
